Happily Ever After Depends on Where the Story Ends
by Beth Pryor
Summary: This is the continuation of Annie and Auggie's story from where With Wind at Our Heels and Rewind left off. The first order of business is a trip home for a highly-anticipated wedding. But as the title says, the illusion of happily ever after depends on where the story ends. Features the Chicago Andersons from my previous stories. Now complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Happily Ever After Depends on Where the Story Ends

**Author:** Beth Pryor

**Rating:** T

**Universe/Timing:** Written in the Anderson Family Universe of "Duck and Cover," "The Sword of Time," "Eyes That Know Me," "With Wind at Our Heels," and "Rewind." This is my continuation of an altered version of Season 4. Annie dealt with Henry Wilcox without going dark, and I just couldn't kill Teo. I have followed canon until Season 4 episode 9 or 10, but there are major departures from there, obviously. If those things bother you, scroll on. If not, I hope you enjoy!

**Summary:** This is the continuation of Annie and Auggie's story from where With Wind at Our Heels and Rewind left off. The first order of business is a trip home for a highly-anticipated wedding. But as the title says, the illusion of happily ever after depends on where the story ends. Features the Chicago Andersons of my previous stories.

**Disclaimer:** Covert Affairs doesn't belong to me. Clearly. And don't get me started on the "myocarditis."

**A/N:** I started to wait until I'd watched Season 5 to finish my story, but then realized it would completely change my perspective. So I'm doing this first. I hope you'll read and review. It probably helps to explain the others if you've read the previous stories, but you wouldn't really have to.

* * *

Chapter 1

"You sure you want to do it like this?" Annie asked as she took the Titanium band from Auggie's outstretched hand.

"It's Max and Sam's day, week, whatever. There's no way I'm stealing their thunder. We can tell them later."

"Okay," she agreed as she removed her own ring and placed them both in a small wooden box on the dresser. She looked back across the room to where her husband of the past three and a half months stood shirtless, his left thumb intermittently touching his fourth finger in the spot the ring had previously occupied. "But if you keep doing that, they'll figure it out."

He stuffed his hands in his back pockets. "They might."

Annie crossed the room and snaked her arms underneath his, pressing her chest against his bare back. "It's okay if they do, though. Right? Because Dana's gonna know."

"She'll keep quiet if I ask her."

"Maybe we should tell her and Brendan."

He turned so their chests were touching. "Maybe." He kissed her head and pulled away to grab his t-shirt from the bed. "You ready?" He touched the face of his wristwatch. "Tommy will be here in 15 minutes."

"I'm ready." She retrieved her purse from the chair in the corner. "The bags are by the front door." When she turned, he was sitting on the bed. She ruffled his hair. "You're nervous."

"There will be a lot of people I haven't seen for years. It's always kind of awkward."

"I'll be there. We all will." She knew that didn't help much, but it was all she had to offer.

"I'll still get yelled at a minimum of three times by someone who thinks I've also lost my hearing," he sighed.

Annie shrugged as she slipped her hand in his and pulled him ever so slightly toward the door. "Par for the course. But it will be good to see the others."

He nodded, ducking his head. "I've actually missed them these past few months. It's been a long time since I've missed being home."

Annie loved the way he expressed himself with body language even after all these years. "You're more invested now. And about to be a godfather."

Auggie shook his head but couldn't keep the grin from his face. "I know. What is Rhett thinking?"

Annie pressed her lips to his shoulder. "He's thinking that he wants to have a good reason for you to come around more often."

A text vibrated Auggie's phone before he could answer. He pulled it out and flashed the screen toward Annie.

"Tommy's early," she reported.

Auggie continued toward the front door. "Well, we're ready. Let's get this show on the road."

* * *

"Uncle Auggie, Annie, over here!" They looked left to find Emmett, who'd grown about four inches since Christmas. His voice sounded about an octave lower, as well. He stood eye to eye with Auggie, and pulled his uncle into a hug. Brendan collected the bags as Emmett and Auggie caught up.

"Where's Eamon?"

"He's with Mom taking his driving test. He failed the parallel parking last time," Emmett revealed with a sad shake of the head. "He didn't ever practice in the van before he went to the DMV." The boys had turned 16 in May.

"So I take it you're the driver today," Auggie mused. Emmett pulled the key ring from his pocket and shook it.

"I know what I'm doing," he assured as Annie and Brendan returned with the bags. They were already engrossed in conversation, bypassing the two men without so much as a glance. Emmett tapped the back of Auggie's hand as they nearly jogged to keep up with his dad and Annie as the four of them headed toward the parking structure.

About 45 minutes later, Emmett pulled the car up to the circle drive in front of Jim and Gwen's place. Auggie sat beaming in the passenger seat. "That felt really smooth, Emmett. Not bad at all."

"Thanks," the boy beamed as they opened the door and spilled out into the summer sunshine.

Jim emerged from around back a few moments before Gwen opened the front door. The five had collected Auggie and Annie's bags and were mounting the front porch steps when she met them on the verandah.

"I'm so happy to see you two," Gwen exclaimed as she kissed Annie's cheek and reached to squeeze Auggie's hand. "How was the trip?"

"Excellent," Annie offered.

"And safe," Auggie added, tipping his head toward his left where Emmett still stood. "Is anyone else here yet?"

Gwen ran down the list. "Leah and the girls are on their way. Troy will be here after work. Max and Sam get in around seven. Rhett, Ruth, and the baby are staying home tonight."

"Let's get you two settled in while we're waiting on the others, though," Jim added as he took the bag from Annie's hand and led the way into the house. "Gwen's got you guys in the Auggie's old room if that's okay."

Auggie snorted, recalling their last few nights in that night over Christmas vacation. Annie elbowed him, a blush creeping across her cheeks. "That will be fine," she managed. Brendan dealt with the rest of the bags while she and Gwen trailed behind with Auggie and Emmett still on the porch.

"What are those two up to?" Gwen asked as she directed Annie to the kitchen and a glass of lemonade, glancing back toward her youngest son and eldest grandchild.

"They've been deep in conversation since we landed, and I know they've been emailing some lately, too, but I'm not exactly sure about all the topics." She shook her head. "Auggie said something about Boston, but that's about all I know."

"He's a lot like Auggie," Gwen revealed. "I know Dana sees that, too."

"Is that bad?" Annie wasn't sure where Gwen was going with that.

The older woman smiled. "No. Not bad, just unpredictable." She poured her own drink. "Eamon's more like Troy and Brendan. He'll be fine with status quo. Emmett has this faraway look that I saw in Auggie's eye for the first time when he was six or seven."

"What about Max?"

Gwen shook her head. "It was different with Max. He and Auggie pushed one another relentlessly. And now I realize he was trying so hard to be someone he wasn't. I never knew exactly what he wanted, but I don't think he did either. I think he's just figuring that out now."

"And Rhett?"

Gwen chuckled. "He's so much like Jim it's not even funny." She shrugged. "I just let Jim deal with him or asked him to tell me what I should do."

"Is that a valid parenting strategy?" Annie asked, rapt with curiosity.

Gwen lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender. "I have no idea. All I can say is I got all of them out of the house, and they're productive members of society in loving relationships."

Annie laughed this time. "I'd say that's a great marker of success."

"You both look much more rested than the last time we saw you," Gwen remarked.

Annie thought back to that day in December and the ambulance meeting them on the tarmac of the small regional airport to whisk Auggie off to an ICU for treatment of dengue fever. "He does know how to make an entrance," she decided.

"I won't ask because I know you can't really tell me, but I'm just going to assume that things are okay." They had also briefly discussed Gwen's understanding of Auggie and Annie's profession during that visit.

"We're doing well. Both of us," allowed Annie.

"That's good. Jim and I have to get down to see the house. The before and after photos are amazing!"

Annie laughed. "Auggie is so glad to be rid of that downstairs sink. He bumped something on it every time he entered that bathroom. For some reason he just never could get the dimensions down."

"Are you talking about that God-awful sink?" Auggie asked as he and Emmett entered the kitchen. "I've never been so foiled by an inanimate object in my life!" Annie laughed, and he found her easily, slipping his arm around her waist before he kissed her neck.

She blushed again and scolded him. "Auggie!"

He located her cheek this time and left a little peck. "Let's go out back. The heat is so much less oppressive here. We could all use a little Vitamin D conversion, right Mom?"

Gwen rounded the counter and placed her hand on her son's forearm. "Absolutely. Emmett, go find out what your father and grandfather are up to and tell them to come join us." Emmett turned toward the stairs as Annie and Auggie followed Gwen into the back yard.

"Were you surprised they decided to do the wedding here," Auggie asked once they'd all found seats. "I thought all the plans were for California."

Gwen shrugged. "I'm not sure what happened. Not long after you boys left in January, Max called and said they'd changed their minds and wanted to do things here. I was thrilled, of course, so just left it at that."

"Well, this is a great time of year to be here. Better than the winter." Auggie didn't really miss the Chicago winters.

"You're just getting soft after all your years in DC," Gwen ribbed. "You've forgotten what real winter is."

"And I'm happy to let you all keep it. Snow kind of sucks for navigation by sound. It dampens everything but does pad corners." Auggie reasoned as his father, brother and nephew joined them.

"Troy just called," Jim began. "He left early and got home just as Leah was packing up the girls, so they'll only be a few minutes more."

"How adorable is the baby?" Annie asked. She was excited to meet her newest niece and nephew.

"She's cute but she cries a lot!" Emmett exclaimed.

"Oh?" Annie inquired.

Gwen agreed. "Leah thought Althea was her difficult child. Callista has been harder. It also doesn't help that Cole is so easy-going."

"And Leah already had her hands full." Annie added.

"Well, the baby is only two weeks old, so here's to hoping things get better," Auggie offered, raising his glass.

Emmett clinked his against it. "Let's hope so, because if you spend enough time with her, you're gonna wish you were deaf, too."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay. I realize that the timeline of "Rewind" doesn't work with this. So just ignore that. This is the real story. And thanks for your reviews!

* * *

Chapter 2

Auggie had fallen asleep in an Adirondack chair hidden in the shade almost as soon as he sat down. Annie left him there, his face peaceful and relaxed. He only reached that level of Zen when they were here. She wished he could achieve this degree of calm in his everyday life and naps, but she knew that wouldn't ever be possible. He thrived in his new position in the DPD, and she continued to build a network of operatives under her in Eastern Europe. There were even whispers that Annie had made the short list to take over for the retiring station chief in Berlin next spring. While the consideration was flattering, she wasn't sure about the timing. She and Auggie were building something good together by actually being together. She loved Europe, and she knew he did, too, but she wasn't sure what would be there for him now. She assumed he'd heard the same things she had, but he hadn't said a word. That had to mean something.

She collected their glasses from the back porch and brought them into the kitchen where Gwen was starting to prepare for the large family dinner. Jim was checking off a list before heading out for a final shopping trip with Emmett standing by, keys in hand. Brendan had found his own chair in his own corner of the front living room and had adopted the posture of his younger brother outside.

"What can I do, Gwen?" Annie asked as she rinsed the cups in the sink.

"Well, I think we'll eat outside, so maybe if you could wipe down the table and countertop outside and get things ready for place settings, that would help." She turned back to the refrigerator and instructed Jim to add more seltzer to the list before he and Emmett headed out. "Is Auggie sleeping?"

"Mmm hmm," Annie confirmed.

"Troy called again. They were almost all in the car when Althea fell asleep, so now they're going to wait for her to nap and then come, so who knows when they'll actually be here."

"Should Auggie talk to Rhett and Ruth before tomorrow? Is there anything special he needs to do?"

Gwen shook her head. "And all he has to do is be on time and promise to protect the baby from Satan or something like that."

"Oh," Annie deadpanned. "Just that."

Both women laughed before Gwen spoke again. "Cole really is a sweet, sweet baby. I think if he'd come along a few years ago, they would have decided on a couple more."

"Is Ruth back to work?" Annie knew how much Ruth valued her career and enjoyed what she did on a day to day basis.

"I think she's going back on Monday. She initially took a little longer off, but the baby basically sleeps all day long and then all night long, so she's going a little crazy in the house. I have a feeling they may show up tonight even though Rhett said they weren't coming."

"What a horrible predicament." Annie immediately empathized with Leah and the thought of Ruth's sleeping baby.

"I know! Troy never slept. Ever. I don't think he does now, which works out pretty well for Leah. He's been on baby duty. He went to work today, but I think it's the first day since Callista was born." Gwen paused and considered her words before she started again. "Leah is an excellent mother, but we've never had another baby around at the same time. She's comparing and doubting herself for no reason."

"I am by no means an expert, but aren't babies just different?" Annie asked.

"Yes. They are."

"Who are what, Gran?" Asked Eamon as he entered the kitchen, a gleaming smile on his face.

"Babies are different. Even twins," she added. "Well, I'm assuming it went better than the last time?"

Eamon held out his license for her to examine. "Hey, Annie," he added, giving her a little wave.

"Congrats, Eamon!" Annie praised. "What did you do with your mom?"

"I dropped her at the house. She had to do something, but she didn't say what. She said she'll call when she's ready for someone to come get her." He accepted the plastic card back from his grandmother. "Where's Auggie?"

"Sleeping out back. Leave him for a little bit, though, okay?" Annie asked.

Eamon nodded. "Where's everybody else?"

"Not here yet. Why don't you swim?" Gwen suggested.

"Yeah, okay." He placed his phone on the table. "I'll leave this here in case Mom calls."

"They've really grown up over the past few months," Annie noted.

"I know," Gwen sighed. "They're not kids anymore. Your sister's girls must be getting big, too."

Annie nodded. "They are. I barely recognized Katia when we were there over Thanksgiving." She reached to pick up a rag when Gwen stopped her.

"Forget that for now. We'll get things together when then others arrive. Why don't we play some tennis while we wait?"

Annie smiled. "That sounds great."

Gwen had just taken set point when the court was overrun by small Andersons. Helena and Althea both tugged at their grandmother, mouths going a mile a minute. Maeve sidestepped all of the commotion and arrived at Annie's side, hugging her tightly.

"Hi, Sweetie!" Annie hugged her back.

"Annie. I'm so glad you're here," the almost 10-year-old sighed.

"I hear things have been a little crazy for the past few weeks."

Maeve rolled her eyes, shielding them against the sun with her hand. "Mom is really stressed, but they went to the doctor yesterday to make sure nothing was wrong with her." Baby Callista had already been relegated to "her." That wasn't a great sign.

Annie grabbed a towel by the baseline and wiped her face. "Let's go find your mom."

"The baby's sleeping. Finally. My mom probably is trying to, too. Like Uncle Brendan and Uncle Auggie." She rolled her eyes again. "Men."

Annie couldn't help but laugh. Maeve reminded her so much of Chloe and Katia. "Let's go see who's still awake." They followed Gwen and the littler girls who had already started back across the lawn toward Eamon and the pool.

When the two of them arrived on the porch, Auggie sat, now awake, with a tiny bundle of baby in his arms. True to Maeve's estimation, Leah had curled up across from them on the glider and was already breathing the deep breaths of sleep.

"I told you," Maeve whispered. "And we may need to keep Uncle Auggie at our house if he makes the baby sleep."

"I heard that," Auggie piped up. "She's quiet right now."

"Don't expect that to last long," Maeve mumbled before she gave up with this band of grown-ups and joined her sisters and the others at the pool.

Troy came through the back door and onto the porch. Although he had shaved, his hair was not as carefully coiffed as Annie remembered. He looked tired and rumpled, two words she's have never previously used to describe Auggie's brother who always strove for physical perfection. He quickly looked around, taking in the locations of his five girls.

"Oh. You guys have my kids. Good. I'm taking my wife to bed. For sleep." He reached down and prepared to scoop Leah into his arms when she woke.

"The baby?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

"Auggie and Annie are gonna watch her for a bit. We're taking a nap. Want me to carry you?"

She shook her head and stood. Annie saw then that her hair was also longer and darker than ever before. It was also pulled into a ponytail. "There's some Alimentum in the bag in the kitchen. The doctor suggested we try it for a few days and see if it helps with the fussiness. I don't think changing her formula will make a difference, but I'm willing to try anything." She followed Troy toward the back door. "Thank you guys. You're lifesavers."

Annie dropped into the chair beside Auggie. "She doesn't look that scary." In fact, Callista was a gorgeous baby.

"I'm not really willing to find out. I'm not anxious about moving her while she's asleep. But I really have to pee."

"I'll take her," offered Annie, reaching her hands carefully under the baby's head and bum to allow Auggie to stand. He started forward, realizing he'd come in with Emmett and had left his cane inside the house. "Are you good?" Annie asked when she made the same realization.

"Yeah. Anything between here and there?"

"There's a chair to your three, but about four feet from where you are. If you go straight from here, the door's about 15 feet." She stood. "Actually, I'll come in with you."

He found her arm and they made their way into the kitchen, the baby still securely in Annie's arms. Once Auggie was headed to the bathroom, Annie found Callista's bag and the item she hoped she'd find, a baby sling. She wriggled into it, securing the baby against her chest while leaving her hands free. She sat at the bar, waiting for Auggie, when Brendan entered the kitchen.

"How'd you end up with that?" he asked, pointing toward the baby. "And where are the others?"

"Her parents are sleeping, Gwen's out back with Eamon and the other girls. Emmett and Jim are at the store, and Dana's at your house. She hasn't called yet for a pick up."

He glanced at his watch. "I'll run by and see if she's ready."

"Auggie's anxious to see her."

He smiled. "She's glad he's here, too." He patted his pockets. "Where did Eamon leave the keys?"

"He's in the pool," she called over her shoulder as Brendan walked through the kitchen and into the backyard. Auggie rounded the corner just as Brendan exited.

"You want to take a walk?"

"We have the baby."

He moved close to Annie and found the baby in the sling. "Seems like you worked that out, and babies love walks."

She rested her head on his shoulder, taking in his clean, masculine scent. Who in the world still used Irish Spring but this man she loved? "Sure, but let's not get too far, just in case she wakes up." She grabbed his cane from the counter and placed it in his hand before they started out the front door as Jim and Emmett pulled in. They passed with quick greetings before Annie and Auggie finally made it down the driveway, hand in hand.

"You think it's like this all the time here? All the coming and going and figuring out where everyone is," she asked.

He chuckled. "Yeah. I'm sure it is. That's what it was like growing up, just on a smaller scale. But now, with all the wives and kids and everything, I'm sure it's always a zoo."

"Troy and Leah look exhausted."

"They have a brand new baby and three other kids." He shrugged. "I'm sure my mom was pretty exhausted by the time I came along, but I'm glad she didn't stop with Max, you know?"

Annie reached up and kissed him again. "I definitely agree."

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews. Still some scene setting here and in the next 1-2, but we've gotta get where we're going.

* * *

Chapter 3

"Has she been asleep this whole time?" a refreshed Leah asked when Auggie and Annie returned from their walk with Callista still snoozing in the sling.

Annie nodded, handing the baby over to her mother. "I think it was the constant motion."

"Whatever it is, it's the longest she's ever slept."

"Oh gosh. Was it too long? Will she stay up tonight?"

Leah laughed. "Probably, but that's nothing new." She patted Annie's arm, reassuring the other woman that they had done nothing wrong. "We could all use the rest, Callista included." She snuggled the baby close to her with her left arm as she moved her right hand to Auggie's arm. "Thank you both for the break."

"Not a problem," Auggie assured. "She barely made a peep."

"Do not tell my husband that. Or do tell him what you did. Or maybe she's just growing out of whatever it is that's bothering her." As if on cue, Callista stirred in her mother's arms, scrunched up her little face and let out an ear-splitting wail. Leah lifted the baby to her shoulder and began bouncing. "Or not," she managed over the screeching before she scooted off to check a diaper and prepare a bottle.

Auggie waited until the sound receded a little before he exhaled, eyebrows raised. "That is impressively loud."

Annie laughed. "I think your sense of hearing is heightened, but yeah. That's something." They turned to find Maeve, arms crossed in front of them in the doorway. She obviously didn't appreciate their mirth. "Hey, Maeve," Annie clued Auggie in on her presence. "What's up?"

"The baby. Obviously." She rolled her eyes and turned on her heel, leaving the two adults speechless in the front hall.

"Was that an indignant huff she just left in?" Auggie asked with a chuckle.

"I believe it was," confirmed Annie in a poor attempt to stifle her own giggle. "We shouldn't laugh though. They all look like hell. Althea clearly dressed herself."

"So there's a chance that someone here has less matching ability than me?" Auggie inquired hopefully.

Annie wove her arms through his. "We should go find the others."

"Yeah. Hanging out in foyers is so last year," he added with a kiss on her hair.

Before she could answer, the screen door opened behind them. "And God forbid you'd be out of style," Dana jibed as she stepped in behind them.

Auggie turned, a surprised grin spreading across his face. "I was not expecting you to sneak up on me."

"I was super quiet on the way up the steps," his long-time friend revealed as she reached up to plant a kiss on his cheek. She released him and turned immediately to Annie, pulling the younger woman into a tight embrace. "We're certainly glad you guys are here."

Annie smiled as Auggie's arm wrapped back around her waist. Brendan pulled the door shut behind them and stepped forward, enveloping Dana in an almost protective hug. Annie felt her brow furrowing as she took in the couple in front of her. More silver strands were visible in Brendan's dark hair than she remembered from the winter. Dana had lost weight, noticeably. Her always short hair appeared almost shorn, and dark circles ringed her eyes. If Annie hadn't been a spy, she might have gasped, taking in her sister-in-law's change in appearance from only about six months ago.

"It's good to be home," Auggie picked up, not seeming to notice Annie's silence. He brushed his fingers across the watch face. "We've still got a few hours before the guests of honor arrive," he moved away from the door and toward the rest of the family. "We should probably get caught up with the others now that Troy's awake." Brendan clapped Auggie's shoulder in quiet agreement, and the four of them continued through the house to find the others.

A little before five, and just as dinner preparations were beginning, a new voice called out from the front hall and seconds later, Rhett, Ruth and a baby carrier containing their 6-week-old son Cole.

In stark contrast to Troy and Leah, these first-time parents nearly floated into the room. Ruth couldn't stop smiling as she unbuckled her baby boy and lifted him into Annie's waiting arms just as soon as hugs had been passed around.

"Oh, Ruth. He's such a doll." She reached down to kiss the baby's downy head. "He smells so delicious, too."

Rhett and Ruth made their way around the room, saying hello to all of the others before finding seats near Annie and Auggie. After a few cuddles, Annie passed the baby to Auggie. Annie had to admit that he painted quite the dashing tableau with a baby in his arms; she just wasn't quite ready to put one or their own there yet. Thankfully, there were plenty here to keep them both occupied.

"Are you heading back to work on Monday, Ruth?" Leah asked as she stood to take Callista for a diaper change. Troy stood to stop her and took the baby instead.

"I am," the older woman confirmed. "But our sitter wasn't expecting him until the next week, so we've sort of cobbled together childcare next week. I'm still working on Friday, but I'm thinking starting with a four day week might not be such a bad idea."

"Well, if you need someone, we can help out," Auggie piped up from his place on the couch.

Ruth sat forward in her seat. "Really?"

"Well, I'll probably need Annie to agree with me on that, but yeah."

Ruth looked over toward Annie who had found a place on the floor with the little girls and was braiding Althea's hair.

She shrugged, not breaking the concentration on her plait. "I think we can manage."

"Same goes for you guys, too, Leah," Auggie offered further. "We don't have any plans this week, and we're obviously more rested than any of you guys. We'd be happy to help out with whatever we can this week."

They hadn't discussed this, but Annie was in total agreement. She nodded toward a flabbergasted Leah. "He's serious. We're here to help."

Leah nodded, wiping a couple of tears that escaped her eyes. She stood and grabbed the mug on the stand beside her chair and started toward the kitchen, but she stopped before exiting the room and kissed Auggie's cheek. He jumped slightly; she patted his arm and left the room.

Annie stood up to follow her. Gwen and Jim had since vacated the now empty kitchen where Annie found Leah bent over the sink, crying silently. "Leah," Annie rubbed her sister-in-law's back. "It's okay."

"It's not. I'm terrible. I shouldn't feel like this. I've done this three times before, and I never felt so out of control," she sobbed.

Annie directed her to a chair. "You're not terrible. You're an amazing mother."

"I'm not an amazing mother to Callista. We are all out of sync. And then I can't even focus on the other girls. And they've been great. Maeve is such a little mother to them, but I'm just so inadequately prepared for this."

Annie knew they had wandered out of her league here, but insecurity was universal. She could relate to that. Plus, she occasionally watched TV. "Do you think part of it might be Baby Blues or even depression?"

Leah wiped her eyes again. "Maybe. They had me fill out a questionnaire at her appointment yesterday, but I really didn't even pay attention. I must have passed because they didn't say anything."

Annie danced this dance with Auggie every now and then. He'd done his best to play down his fluctuating moods, but the more they got to know one another, the more involved she'd inevitably become. He wanted not to need the medication, but he'd finally realized how much more equipped he made himself for handling the chaos around him if he could control that one variable. She supported him however he needed it – most of the time silently, but sometimes vocally when he voiced his own doubts.

"Would it be helpful if one of us went with you to your doctor next week or if we kept the girls so you could go alone?" She gave Leah two viable options. Not going wasn't one of them.

Leah digested what Annie was proposing for a moment. "I'll call on Monday," she decided. "Troy has to go in to the office, though. They've been working on a presentation for a prospective client from Tokyo who's coming on Thursday. He has to be there this week."

Annie nodded her understanding of Troy's situation. Sometimes work came first, and Leah knew that Annie knew this. "Auggie and I are here. Whatever we can do."

"Thank you," Leah sighed, something like relief washing over her. "I just wasn't expecting this at all." She swallowed hard. "Our life is amazing. We have these wonderful, healthy daughters, a comfortable home, Troy has a job that he loves that lets me stay home with the girls. I have nothing to complain about. I feel so stupid." She looked up at Annie, "Especially when I'm here with you. I think about Auggie, and I feel like such a phony. What do I have to be depressed about?"

Annie took Leah's hands in hers across the table. "That's not how it works, Leah. Not by a longshot."

"I know that; I do. But it really doesn't make any of this any easier."

"And blaming yourself does?" Annie frowned. "That can't be true."

"It isn't. It doesn't. I'll call my doctor on Monday morning and let you know what I need," Leah agreed as she started to stand. "Troy probably needs a break."

Annie stopped her. "I don't hear anything, and the babies are way outnumbered by adults. Someone in there can cuddle her right now if she needs it. What do you need?"

Leah didn't need to think about that. "A bath would be heavenly."

Annie could help her with that. "Use our bathroom. Auggie's room has a big tub and no one will disturb you. I'll cover for you."

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely. I'll come up and get you when we're ready for dinner."

Leah stood and they hugged. "Thank you."

"You're so welcome, Leah. Go!" Annie shooed her off to the stairs.

A moment later, Auggie made his way into the kitchen. "Annie?"

"I'm here," she confirmed.

"Anybody else?"

"Nope. Just us. Leah's upstairs."

He moved along the bar toward her. "Everything okay?"

"Not really, but we're working on it."

"I'm sorry about offering our services there without asking. This is your vacation, too."

She moved her body close to his and let him wrap her in his strong arms. "It's fine. We can help out. We need to help out. That's what you do for families, right?"

He kissed her cheek. "Yeah. It is. And I have a feeling we aren't done yet."

"What?" She was glad she didn't have to put on a brave face for him.

"Something's up with Dana or Brendan. I haven't figured out which yet, but something's off." He trailed off on that thought, but picked up the previous one. "You've got the Leah thing under control, though. Right?"

"Post-partum depression and exhaustion?" She leaned back against him. "No. Not even close."

"Should we enlist my mom?" Gwen remained the family's go-to in times of crisis.

Annie knew this, too. "Um yeah. I'm already in way over my head."

"Rhett just gave me a list of instructions a mile long about tomorrow at the church. I think I got it all, but you'd better get back in there to be my backup." He shook his head. "The actual christening is going to be more stressful than being the kid's godfather."

"That will be over tomorrow," Annie pointed out. "And we'll just take it one day at a time from there."

"Not normally the way I think about a vacation," lamented Auggie.

She sighed. "Something tells me we aren't going to be working on our tans this week." The way things were going so far, there was a good chance they were going to need a vacation from their vacation.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

By the time Max and Sam arrived around 8 pm, the rest of the family had eaten dinner and cleaned up after themselves. Gwen had saved a plate for the two stragglers, who gladly accepted a home-cooked meal almost as soon as they made it through the front door. Rhett and Ruth waited just long enough to greet the fiancés before heading out with their sleeping baby. Leah had agreed to the pleas of Maeve and Helena for a sleepover with Annie and Auggie. Troy scooped up a head-bobbing Althea as Brendan grabbed the baby, who remained awake but mercifully quiet. After yet another round of kisses and hugs, Annie herded the girls upstairs to the bath while Auggie joined his brother, parents, and Sam at the dining room table.

"Trip go okay?" Auggie asked, once plates and glasses were filled.

"It was fine," Sam offered. "But it's good to be here finally. It's been a long day."

"Are the two of you ready for this week and what follows?" Gwen sat across from Max.

He nodded between bites. "I think so. I think we've put out all the vendor fires so far, but we'll make the rounds this week and finalize everything."

"We're glad it's going to be here, that you're all here." Jim expressed his pleasure in having his sons together in one place.

"The idea of California was so symbolic to us." Max explained. "But when it came right down to it, Sam's family was traveling anyway, so it just made sense to come here where pretty much everyone was anyway."

"Well, I'm sure Rhett and Troy and company appreciate being able to stay close to home right now," Gwen pointed out. "It would be a circus with all those babies on planes!"

Sam smiled. "I'm sorry to have missed the whole crew."

"Don't worry," interjected Auggie. "You'll have plenty of time to become acclimated."

"Or something like that," chuckled Sam. "I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to all of it." They all turned toward the footsteps and laughter descending the steps. Maeve and Helena, damp hair braided to ensure wavy curls in the morning, arrived in the kitchen with Annie in tow.

"Hi, girls. You all smell so clean," Auggie observed as Annie took the seat beside him. He draped his hand across her leg.

"We used Annie's fancy soap," giggled Helena as she placed her smaller hand on his free one.

He held it to his nose and gave it an exaggerated sniff. "You definitely smell like Annie."

"Like grapefruits," added Maeve.

Auggie nodded. "Although if you guys all wear Annie's perfume, I might get confused about who's actually in the room."

Helena giggled again as she leaned against Auggie's shoulder. "But we're little kids and Annie is a grown up lady."

Maeve knew better. "There are other ways you can tell who is who. Emmett told me."

Auggie smiled toward where his oldest niece was sitting. "Emmett is just full of useful information. But you're right. There are lots of ways that I can figure out who's around, although it's nicest if you just tell me."

Gwen glanced at her watch. "And there are lots of people here who need to get to bed. Cole is expecting us all bright and early in the morning for his christening." She stood and kissed each of her boys, Sam, Annie, and then the little girls. "Good night."

Jim stood and joined her. "See you all in the morning."

"Will you sleep down here with us, Annie?" Helena asked as Maeve began preparing their little nest of blankets in the small living room where they could watch a movie before bed.

"Absolutely." She squeezed Auggie's hand as she stood as an apology of sorts. "Run up and brush your teeth and I'll meet you there." They bounded back up the stairs. She reached down to kiss Auggie. "Save me a place upstairs?"

"Don't fall asleep," he warned.

"I'm hoping the swimming and sun will do them in quickly." She looked up toward Max and Sam with a little wave. "Night guys." They waved back, and she disappeared into the living room. Sam also excused himself to his and Max's room in the basement.

Auggie sat alone with his brother now. "Are you guys ready for this week and all that comes afterward?"

Max took a deep breath. "We hope so. Was it stressful for you two?"

"Not really. We just headed out to this place in West Virginia…" He stopped, mouth open. He blinked a couple of times realizing they'd already been figured out. "How did you know?"

"I'm not sure what tipped me off, but you sitting there playing with your white-ringed finger didn't help your case any," his brother pointed out.

Auggie flexed and extended his fingers again. "Annie said that would do me in, but it feels so weird no to have it on. I didn't know about the tan lines, though."

"Yeah, well. Don't have to be a spy to figure that out."

Auggie rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"I'm serious." Max placed his hand on his brother's arm. "But congratulations. It looks good on you."

"What does?"

"Happiness."

Auggie grinned. "I'm guessing it's looking the same way on you, but listen. We didn't want to say anything yet. This week is about you guys. We'll have a party around the holidays or something and tell everyone, or maybe at our anniversary. We hoped no one would figure it out now."

"And you definitely didn't think it would be me." Max realized he'd been out of touch with the family for so long, but he and Auggie had made important inroads in their relationship.

"Our bet was on Dana."

Max could concede that point. "Makes sense."

Auggie nodded. "We'd like to keep it quiet this week if we can."

"Sure. Absolutely," Max assured. "But it's good?"

Auggie paused. He'd been married before. Sort of. But everything with Annie was so different. So much better. He found it hard to keep a smile off of his face when he considered his life with her. "Yeah, it is."

Max sighed as though Auggie's admission of marital bliss had lifted a weight from his shoulders. "Good. It's about time we all had some good in our lives on a permanent basis." He stood, moving his hand to his little brother's shoulder. "I'm going to bed. You going up?"

Auggie stood, too. "Yeah. I don't think I'm going to insert myself into girl time."

"You seem truly happy, Auggie. I'd venture that hasn't been the case for a while."

Auggie exhaled. "I didn't realize until I found her. It's complicated, and I guess I've felt my life was complicated enough without adding relationship drama." He shook his head. "And now I'm starting to realize how utterly stupid that sounds. How stupid that is."

"That sounds about like you," Max estimated. "You've always been so one-way in your thinking, even when you were absolutely wrong. I'm glad something knocked some sense into you."

Auggie chuckled. "I kind of wish it hadn't been Iraqi insurgents at times, but if that's what it took, it's worth it." He finished with a shrug.

Max inhaled sharply. "I don't think you have to go that far, Aug."

"I know, but I can now." He sat back down in his chair, sensing this conversation wasn't over yet. The chair to Auggie's right scraped the floor as his brother took a seat beside him.

Max couldn't figure out how to further discuss what Auggie had just admitted, so he changed the subject. "What's going on with the work stuff?"

They had briefly discussed Auggie's potential partnership with Teo and Arthur during their last visit home over Christmas. "Arthur and his son Teo have been putting things together for the past few months. They've taken several consulting jobs and feel like there's definitely a market for them, for us." Auggie shifted in his seat. "My work is fine. I'm in a different role than before, and it's fine."

"Sounds fine," quipped Max.

Auggie rolled his eyes again before he spoke again. "I'm pretty sure they're going to offer Annie a job in Europe."

"Wow."

"Yeah." He paused again. "She's put in the work, and she'd do an incredible job. I expected they'd tap her at some time, but I just didn't think it would be so soon."

Max wasn't surprised. "She's good. You've said that before."

"She's excellent. Maybe better than I was." He couldn't begrudge his wife this.

"Do you think she'd want it?"

Auggie shook his head with a quick shrug of his shoulders. "I don't know. We haven't even talked about the fact that I know that it's a possibility."

"So maybe you should talk to her about this instead of me?" Max reasoned.

Auggie smiled. "Probably."

"So I'm going to take this opportunity to save both of our marriages and go to bed." Max stood.

Auggie joined him. "Probably a good idea. See you in the morning." Auggie headed toward the stairs to the upper floor. The girls whispered and snickered in the front room as he passed the open door. He had a feeling they might outlast Annie. When he arrived in his room, he jumped into the shower, brushed his teeth, and was just climbing into bed when Annie made it up the stairs.

"They're finally asleep," she announced before she kissed him quickly. She forced herself out of the bed to wash up in the adjacent bathroom. When she returned, she slid in beneath the covers beside him, and he pulled her close.

"That didn't take too long." He exhaled contentedly as she burrowed in beside him.

"They were sleepy. Thankfully." She kissed his bare chest. "I've wanted to be up here with you all day."

They'd barely had a moment alone all day. "I know. But there's a lot going on here."

"Leah and Troy are exhausted. Brendan has aged, Auggie. His hair is grey and he just looks old somehow." She took a deep breath. "I'm not sure what's going on with Dana, but she's lost a lot of weight."

"She felt frail. And they were both so quiet. Do you think she's sick? Or Brendan? Or something with the boys?"

"I don't know, Babe, but I think she we need to figure that out."

Auggie nodded. They would have to investigate that further. His thoughts turned then to his parents. "Mom and Dad seemed okay, though. Right?"

"Yeah. They're good. Your mom is cutting back at work some. She's thinking about giving up her lab and wants to see what semi-retirement would be like. I think the kids could keep her busy if that's what she wants."

"When did you guys talk about that?"

"We played tennis today. She beat me."

Auggie chuckled. "She's good."

"I know that now." He kissed the base of her neck. She shivered, pressing her body even closer to his. "Rhett and Ruth are incredibly happy as well as amazingly well-rested."

Auggie felt moderately prepared for his role in Sunday's christening but not completely at ease just yet. "Do I have to hold the baby tomorrow? Because I might drop him in the Holy Water."

Annie elbowed his side playfully. "Ruth's sister will hold him, but I feel certain that you would not drop him."

He laughed a breath. "I hope not." They lay quietly for a few moments before Auggie spoke again. "Oh. And Max knows."

Annie pushed up on her elbow so she could see his face better. "What? How?"

"He figured it out, and he caught me so off guard that I couldn't do anything but tell the truth."

"Well that's a first," scoffed Annie in return.

Auggie grinned at her in the moonlit room. "I know."

"What did he say?"

"That we looked happy, that he was excited for us, and that he wouldn't say anything until we were ready."

"Well, the reason we didn't want to say anything was because of him and Sam. If they're okay with it, I don't see why we can't let the others know." She chose her next words carefully. "It seems like a secret we don't have to keep, a lie we don't have to tell."

He also liked to be completely truthful when it was possible, as it so rarely was. "I'm all with you on that, but I don't want to interfere with the wedding."

"So let's tell them tomorrow. We can rain on Cole's parade, and he'll be none the wiser."

Auggie couldn't fight her, and he wanted the world and his family to know that this amazing woman was his wife. "Okay," he agreed. "We'll tell them tomorrow."

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks so much for your lovely reviews. This one is a bit shorter, but this was the natural break.

* * *

Chapter 5

Annie nudged Auggie awake with a kiss on his cheek. "I'm going to go down so I'll be there when the girls wake up." He nodded but didn't move much more than that. She found her pyjamas on the floor and set off for the sleepover she had abandoned the night before. Gwen was already in the kitchen working on coffee when Annie arrived on the first floor.

"The girls are still sleeping," she assured. "And your secret's safe with me."

Annie accepted a steaming mug of coffee. "Whew. Thanks."

"It's perfectly acceptable to avoid sleeping on the floor over the age of 25." Gwen rubbed her hip comically and shook her head.

Annie chuckled. "The bed is much more comfortable. Definitely."

"And Auggie is in it."

Annie blushed but found her voice to respond. "Yes. He is."

"Don't be embarrassed about your affection and attraction toward him, Annie. He's a handsome man."

They both laughed. "He absolutely is," Annie agreed.

Helena arrived in the kitchen, wiping sleep from her eyes. "Is it time to do my hair, Annie?"

Annie pulled the little girl onto her lap and examined the braids, which had held tightly through the night. "Looks pretty good, but let's wait a little longer."

"And we'll have letter pancakes in just a bit, too. Why don't you go brush your teeth and wash your face while I get things ready? Your parents will be here in about an hour, and you'll have to hurry to get dressed then."

"Okay," Helena chirped as she jumped down from Annie's stool.

"And tell Maeve to get moving, too!" Gwen called behind her as she scurried off.

"I'll go help with the cleanup," Annie decided as she finished her cup of coffee and followed Helena back to the nest of blankets where her sister still snoozed.

They all reconvened for breakfast a little while later. Annie helped take orders of which letters Gwen needed to fashion out of pancake batter. She finally accepted her 'A' and 'W' before she took a spot across from Auggie who was working on his pair of As. Annie glanced around the table. She and Danielle had been on their own since the summer after her second year at Georgetown. Thankfully, Danielle had Michael, and she had Danielle. They'd gotten along just fine with things that way; it wasn't like they'd had the whole "Anderson experience" before their parents' car went off that bridge, anyway, but still. As much as she loved Auggie, there were times she thought she might love his family even more.

The boys moved to clean up while Annie and Gwen left to get ready for the church service. Annie was finishing pinning back the last few strands of hair when Auggie entered their room.

He stood at the bathroom door. "I started to get dressed earlier, but you packed my bag."

"I left the tags on everything."

He backed away from the door. "Yeah, but it would be bad if the blind godfather looked so stereotypically blind."

Annie exited the bathroom and found him sitting on the bed, looking a little lost. "You're really worried about that?"

"I don't know." He swung his head toward where she stood. "What do I know about kids?"

She climbed behind him and attempted to ease the tension in his shoulders. "You don't actually have to help raise him. Just be available for spiritual guidance or whatever." She paused. "You're already doing that for Emmett."

"I don't think it's the same thing."

Annie kissed his ear. "It's exactly the same thing."

He motioned toward the open suitcase that he'd obviously already rifled through. "Can you just find me something to wear?" His hand shook as he pointed.

Annie pulled back from him, eyebrows raised. "Sure, but let's not make a habit of it."

"Shit. Sorry. I've got it." He stood. "How bad can it be?"

Annie crawled across the bed to join him. She placed her hand on his back. "Hey."

"Why did they pick me, Annie? What can I offer this kid?" He dropped his head. She could barely hear his next strained question. "What could I offer our kid?"

"That's what this is about?"

He nodded silently, swallowing hard before he spoke again. "This is one of those times I need you to tell me that I'm being ridiculous."

"You're being ridiculous," she offered as she slipped her arms around his chiseled waist. "And you know that's not true."

"And we don't have to figure it all out right now." He inhaled deeply and blew out the breath, letting his momentary lapse of insecurity go with it. "I gotta get dressed." He moved back and sat on the edge of the bed, pants in hand, as he realized that his entire suit was packed together in the garment bag.

"You got this?" Annie inquired, knowing that her husband was more than capable of dressing himself. More than capable of most things.

He shot her a sheepish smile. "Yeah. Sorry."

She reached down and kissed him again, her hands on either side of his face. "You're fine. I'm going down with the others."

He nodded as he pulled on his socks. "I'll be there in a bit."

"We're leaving in 20 minutes."

He nodded. "I love you, Walker. Thanks."

"I love you, too. See you downstairs."

By the time he'd collected himself, the rest of the family had converged on the kitchen. Annie and Leah were putting the finishing touches on the girls' hair. Gwen was the first to approach her youngest son.

"You ready?" she asked as she took his hand.

He adjusted his shirt collar under his jacket. "Yeah. Is it time?"

She straightened his tie. "Almost. You look great."

He smiled. "Thanks."

"Rhett is so glad that you agreed to this. He knew you wouldn't take the position lightly; that's part of the reason they chose you."

Auggie nodded. His mom always seemed to know what he needed to hear. He didn't think he could come up with a coherent answer, so instead, he kissed her cheek and nodded again.

"Are you and Annie going to take the Pathfinder or ride with us?" she asked.

Annie perked up at this line of conversation. "Dana just texted me. She said she wanted us to ride with her. She'll pick us up here."

"Oh." Auggie looked up. "She didn't text me."

"She'll be here at 9:30. It's 9:20 now."

Leah moved to round up her crew. "We're heading out now. See you all there. And thanks, Annie!" she called as they moved toward the front door.

"Max and Sam are coming with us. We'll meet you all there," Gwen confirmed. "See you in a bit."

"We'll wait for Dana out front, then?" Auggie asked, feeling a little adrift.

Annie's hand materialized in his, anchoring him, letting him know she was there. "Yeah. She'll be here in a few minutes."

Once they'd made it to the porch, Auggie turned to Annie. "How did this come about?"

"I don't know. She texted me about an hour ago. Said she'd pick us up." Before Annie could say any more, Dana's sedan pulled into the driveway. The couple made their way down the steps. Auggie took the front seat while Annie slid in behind him.

"Thanks for the ride," Annie started as she closed her door. "Are the boys on their way?"

"I'm not sure. I came from my mom's. She's not been well, and I've been there for the past couple of weeks." She put the car in gear and started off toward the church.

Auggie turned in his seat. "What's going on Dana?"

She swallowed hard, not completely able to keep her voice from wobbling as she spoke. "You'll need to talk to your brother about that."

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thanks for your reviews. Here's a bit more.

* * *

Chapter 6

"What?" Auggie leaned toward his lifelong best friend. "Dana, what are you talking about?"

They were pulling into the church lot, now. Dana looked back at Annie and then across to Auggie. "I shouldn't have said anything right now. We have to go in here." She placed her hand on Auggie's. "Please promise me you won't say anything to Brendan right now. Maybe later we can talk, or you can talk to him, but not now."

Auggie nodded, his head suddenly racing with ideas of how his brother could have hurt her. "Okay. Not now," he agreed as they spilled out onto the sidewalk.

Annie joined him in front of the church as Dana ran ahead to find her sons. "What in the world?"

Auggie exhaled through his nose. "I think that my brother and I need to have a talk as soon as this is over."

"You don't think that he…" Annie couldn't believe Brendan could have done such a thing to his family.

"I don't know what else to think."

She wasn't willing to give up on Brendan just yet, not without more concrete information. "Well. Let's not jump to conclusions." She nudged him toward the church. "And you don't want to ruin this for Rhett and Ruth."

"Right." He unfolded the cane. "Right. We have to do this." She offered her hand and he slid his up to her elbow. Right inside the vestibule of the church, Rhett met them and hustled them toward the front of the sanctuary where the rest of the family had gathered. They sat silently until their part of the service. Rhett guided Auggie to his place near the altar where he stood just behind Ruth's sister Loren. Loren held baby Cole while the priest poured the water over his head as she and Auggie answered in the affirmative to his questions regarding the safekeeping of the child.

In a few moments it was all over. He made his way back to a seat on the front pew, staying close to Loren who shoveled Cole into his arms as the congregation stood for the final hymn. Annie slipped in beside him during the singing.

"See, the baby is safely out of the Holy Water and no worse for the wear," she whispered, her head close to his.

"He is rather snuggly," Auggie conceded as he kissed the top of the baby's fuzzy head.

The singing ended and they were dismissed following a final prayer. Auggie and Annie held their positions at the front of the church, eventually turning Cole over to a beaming Ruth who reminded them of the reception to follow at a nearby hotel. Annie searched for Dana and found the other woman headed toward the door with one of the twins, Emmett, she thought. Auggie slipped his hand around her arm as they moved down the aisle and toward the door. Dana met them out front.

"I'm sorry, but I just can't do it again today. I'm going back to my mom's. Call me later, okay?" She reached up and kissed Auggie's cheek. He nodded and kissed her back, and then she was gone.

"We'll need a ride," Annie pointed out.

"Check with Troy. We can pile in with their kids," Auggie decided after a second. Annie directed him toward the Suburban where she and Leah climbed in the back and secured the girls and themselves. Auggie took the place beside Troy.

"I thought you guys rode with Dana," Troy pointed out as they headed toward the reception.

"Her mother wasn't feeling well," Auggie lied. "She was heading back there."

"Brendan mentioned last night that Dana had been staying there for the past couple of weeks," Leah confirmed. "We've been kind of out of the loop for a while. Obviously." She turned back to break up a squabble between Helena and Althea. Auggie realized there was no use in pressing them for further information. Instead, he sat back and listened to Troy's estimation of the Cubbies' chance at a playoff run.

When they arrived at the reception, he kept his distance from Brendan, or rather, Brendan didn't approach him. Whatever they needed to discuss didn't need to happen here. He parked himself in a corner with Troy while Annie and Leah mingled with the others and kept the girls occupied.

Troy leaned over toward his brother. "Having you and Annie around puts us at a more favorable ratio with the kids."

"Yeah?" Auggie answered, distractedly, unable to shake his previous conversation with Dana. Annie's laughter drifted across the room, and he lifted his head toward it, smiling briefly. He turned back to Troy. "What were you saying?"

Troy chuckled. "Nothing." Troy scooted his chair closer to Auggie's. "She's great, Aug. You've done really well there."

Auggie nodded, more solemn now. "I know that."

"The girls love her, Leah included." Troy glanced over to see Annie bouncing Callista against her chest. "And Callista."

"We both wish we could be here more often," Auggie started, but Troy stopped him.

"Hey. You've done a great job recently – three times in just over a year? We'll take it.

"I'm trying to get home more often," he promised. "Annie loves being here, too."

"She's family now. We're happy to have either of you, both of you, whatever, whenever."

"Thanks. That means a lot. To both of us."

Troy cleared his throat, the moment threatening to get a little more emotional than he'd intended. "Yeah, well, I'm gonna get some more punch. You want anything?"

Auggie sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "No, Man. I'm good." He was only alone for a matter of moments before Annie skidded into the chair beside him.

"Oh. My. Gosh." She laughed, just a little out of breath. "These girls are adorable but a handful. Althea just tried to climb into the kitchen through the serving window. She was more than halfway there before I pulled her down."

"She does sound like a livewire," Auggie agreed. "I'm glad you're having a good time."

"You and Troy looked like you were getting along okay."

"We were. We are. He went to get something to drink."

"Yeah, and it appears he's been deputized into diaper duty. He and Callista and the diaper bag just disappeared around a corner."

"Where's Brendan?" Auggie knew that he'd promised Dana not to do anything now, but his brother had to know by now that he and Dana had talked. Brendan had to know that a conversation was coming.

"He and the boys just left. The boys had to get to work." Eamon and Emmett were working as lifeguards at the pool at Jim's club.

Auggie nodded, then closed his eyes. "What am I going to do about that?"

Annie rubbed her hand up his arm. "I don't know, Hun. Maybe start by talking to him?"

"Yeah. And sooner rather than later," he decided.

"Ah! Here's where you two have been hiding," Max announced his arrival at their table. "I've been looking for you."

"I haven't really moved since I got here," Auggie pointed out. "Buffet lines aren't really my thing."

"I didn't say I'd been looking that hard." He pulled another chair around so he sat beside Annie and facing Auggie. "Listen, Sam and I talked last night, and we definitely don't want you to hide your big news."

"That's really sweet, Max, but we don't want to impose on your celebration," Annie assured.

He waved her off. "Nonsense. We aren't taking no for an answer. Either you tell these people you're married or we will."

"You're married?" Annie and Max turned to find an astonished Troy and Leah standing behind Max's chair.

"I didn't see them there," Auggie, who sat facing the new arrivals, was quick to point out.

"Now would have been a good time for that bionic hearing to kick in, though," Annie mumbled.

"I was distracted," he shot back. "But hey guys. What's up?"

"Eavesdropping, I guess." Troy sputtered, glancing from Max to Annie to Auggie to Leah. He set down the two cups of punch he was holding on the table to Auggie's left. "But that's great. Right?"

Annie took Auggie's hand. He scooted a little closer to her. "We think so."

"So do we," gushed Leah, as she rushed forward to embrace them both.

Sam noticed the exchange and came to join them. "So, everyone knows then?"

"Well, this corner of the room, anyway," quipped Max.

"Should we tell the others?" Sam suggested. He'd been almost giddy when Max had revealed the news of the secret marriage the night before.

"Maybe not now," Auggie pleaded. "Maybe we can just let it trickle out?"

"I think that's better," Annie agreed. "We really don't need a big announcement or anything."

Max nodded, knowing better than to push his brother on this. "We'll leave it as it is."

Annie reached into the zipped pocked of her clutch. "Or maybe we could just wear these?" She placed Auggie's ring in his palm and slipped hers onto her finger.

"I thought you left them at the house."

"That last trip to the bathroom, I decided to bring them. Just in case."

He slid the titanium band into its rightful place. Annie's clinked against his as she took his hand again. "I like this better," he agreed as his lips found hers.

"Um, Aug," Max interrupted. "We're gonna have to ask you two to get a room. There are a lot of kids here."

Annie's face stayed close to his. "Let's get out of here," she murmured close to his ear.

"Mmmhmm," Auggie agreed. He stood. "We need a ride to the house. Can one of you guys run us up there?"

"We brought our rental and came separate from Mom and Dad, so we can probably help you out." Max fished in his pocket for the keys and turned them over to Annie. "Be careful."

She grinned. "Always."

"We need to say something to Rhett and Ruth before we leave."

"Sure." She scanned the room. "They're over by the cake."

"There's cake?"

Annie rolled her eyes at the others. "Bye guys. We'll see you all later." They crossed the room to meet up with the proud parents. Ruth saw them approaching and moved to greet the approaching couple.

"You're leaving already," she realized as she embraced Annie, followed by Auggie.

"We are," Annie confirmed.

She nodded at Annie before turning to Auggie for another quick hug. "Thank you so much for agreeing to do this."

"I'll do my best." It was the most honest answer he could give.

"I know. And that's always been more than enough. We honestly couldn't think of anyone we'd rather have a hand in guiding our son as he grows." She squeezed Auggie's left hand in her right one, stopping as she did so. "Oh. What is this?" He raised both of their hands.

"We didn't want to cause a fuss," Annie explained.

"Oh my gosh! Rhett!" She pulled her husband from conversation with another parishioner. "You have to see this."

"What is so important that I had to be physically dragged across the room?" He sounded a little perturbed, but mostly just like himself. Ruth remained silent but pointed to Auggie's left hand, then Annie's and back.

"They're married!" She squealed before Rhett's mind had a chance to even process the entire scene.

"Wow," was all his oldest brother could manage. Auggie couldn't remember the last time he remembered Rhett being rendered speechless.

Auggie found Rhett's shoulder. "Listen, we don't want to make a big ruckus here. This is Cole's party." He lowered his voice. "Annie and I are gonna run back to the house while everyone is still here, and we'll all talk tonight at Mom's."

"Yeah. Sure." Rhett chuckled. "I remember those days. You guys get out of here."

Auggie's cheeks felt warm. "We're gonna go." He motioned to where he thought the door was before he felt Annie's hand in his.

"Thanks for today, Auggie," Rhett echoed his wife's earlier words.

"Yeah. You're welcome. Come by tonight, okay?"

Rhett patted his shoulder again before he and Annie headed for the door. In the parking lot, they found the rental after a bit of searching. Annie hopped behind the wheel and they were on their way. But at the end of the street leading to Gwen and Jim's house, Annie paused.

"Something tells me we aren't going to your parents' house for a little newlywed romp as you've suggested to your brothers, are we?"

"Um, no."

"Right." She passed the turn off for the driveway and continued down the block, hanging a left and heading toward Brendan and Dana's house. Auggie needed answers, and he was going to get them now.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Car's in the driveway. Want me to go in with you?" Annie asked as they approached the house.

Auggie shook his head. "Can you just give us a minute? Or 30?"

Annie parked the car on the street. "Are you okay to the door?"

He reached across and kissed her. "I'll be fine." Auggie exited, found his bearings, made his way to the door, and knocked. As Brendan opened the door allowing him admittance, Annie pulled away from the curb and headed toward the big house to change and kill time while the brothers talked.

"Come in." Brendan held the door for Auggie. "I've been expecting you." Auggie entered the living room, and Brendan directed him to a chair. "We should sit."

Auggie fought to keep his cool at his brother's nonchalance. "Should we?"

"Auggie. I…" Brendan stammered. "I don't know how this happened. I never …" He sunk to the couch across from where his brother stood. "It's like I lost my mind."

"I don't want to misinterpret anything, so I think you'd better start from the beginning and tell me everything," Auggie decided, taking a seat in the chair beneath his hand.

"It's so ridiculous and cliché that I can't even believe myself when I say it out loud." Brendan sighed. "There was an intern at work. And it started so innocently; she asked for my help, played to my ego, and before I knew it things had gotten inappropriate. We were calling and texting at all hours of the day and night. I was working late, missing the boys' games." He paused. "I kissed her. I did that; nothing more physically, but it was an affair, an emotional affair."

"And you kissed someone other than your wife. Most people would consider that cheating on its own without all the rest of this stuff." He couldn't believe that he was having this conversation. With Brendan. He'd almost expected it would come at some point with Troy, but Brendan? Never. "You cheated on _Dana_. And the boys. What the hell, Brendan?"

"I could give you all the expected, tired excuses, but it doesn't matter why it happened, why I did it. I love Dana; I never wanted to hurt her or the boys." Brendan's voice dropped to a low, strained whisper. "I just got lost."

Auggie wasn't sure where to go or what to do here. He didn't want to let his brother off that easily, but he also couldn't bring himself to kick him when he was down. Not after Brendan had helped him dig out of the biggest hole he'd ever found himself in. "So what now?"

Brendan stood and paced back and forth in front of Auggie. "I've been giving her the space she asked for."

"How much do the boys know?"

"They know something's up, obviously. Emmett does, at least." The boys. Brendan realized the damage this could do, was probably doing, to his relationships with his sons. "He's perceptive. He's been sticking close to Dana. Eamon's a little more of a typical self-absorbed teenager, but he'll figure it out eventually."

"And you'll have to deal with that either way, but what are you doing about Dana?"

Brendan pleaded with Auggie. "I'm not asking you to see things from my side or anything like that, and I know that she's one of your best friends, but is there any way you would help me here? Talk to her. Ask her to talk to me, or at least to let me talk to her. Let me try to fix this."

Auggie nodded. He'd expected as much. "I'll talk to her, but she's hurt. You understand that, right?"

"Of course I do. And if she needs more time that's fine. I'd just like to know that she's willing to sit down with me – or with someone else – and try to get through this. I can't lose her, Auggie. Not like this."

"What about the boys?" Auggie uncrossed his legs and sat forward in his chair.

"I'd like to have something concrete to tell them."

"They're not six, Bren. You can't assume that they're oblivious."

"And I don't." He sighed. "They know. Of course they know. But I keep hoping that the details won't be necessary, that they can just know that there are problems that we're working to fix." His voice hitched. "I can't tell them, Auggie. How would I ever look either of them in the eye again?"

"They'll be disappointed and hurt and probably angry. I don't see how we're going to get around that, but you're their dad. They love you, and that does count for something."

"I hope you're right."

"I'll talk to Dana, but I'm pretty sure you're going to need more than that."

"Like a counselor? I'm willing to do that. I'd do whatever she asked."

Auggie exhaled slowly. "What if what she wants is time and space? What if she wants you to leave?"

"Did she say that?"

Auggie shook his head. "No, but she's upset right now. I'm not sure what she may say or do or ask. I'm just telling you that you're going to have to be ready for anything."

"Do the others suspect anything?"

"I haven't talked to Mom, but the others seem pretty wrapped up in their own things, babies, weddings, all that." Auggie placed his left hand on his knee. He twisted the ring around his fourth finger with his left thumb. Brendan looked across the room to his brother and stopped.

"Wow," Brendan whispered as he sat again, this time in the chair to Auggie's right. "Congratulations. That's just…" his voice faded as he tried to psych himself up to be excited and positive for his brother, but he wasn't finding the words.

"Bad timing," Auggie finished for him.

"But it really is great." He patted Auggie's right leg. "And you're clearly happy."

Auggie couldn't help but smile. "I am, but now I'm starting to feel guilty about it."

Brendan laughed. "Don't feel guilty on my account. Besides, it's about damn time."

Auggie chuckled. "Ironically, I do have a tendency to take the scenic route." They were laughing together when Annie's knock on the front door interrupted them. Brendan thanked Auggie again and offered his congratulations to the couple before they headed out.

"So?" Annie asked once they made it to street.

"About what we suspected. It was a girl at work." Auggie shrugged. "I don't even know what to think."

Her hand found its way up his forearm, and she pulled his body close to hers. "I'm sorry. I know that they both mean a lot to you."

He rested his chin on the top of her head. "Where's the car?"

"I walked back. Is that okay?"

"Yeah. Fine."

She snaked an arm around his neck. "Do you want to take this off?" She started working on his tie and pulled it free of him before he could even answer.

"Thanks." He stuffed the piece of silk in his pocket. "Want to go down by the water before we go back to the house?"

"Sure." She directed him east toward the lake, and they fell in step together. "You want to talk about it a little more?"

"He wants me to convince Dana to talk to him." Her fingers wound their way between his. "I told him that it was hard to tell what she'd say." A thought occurred to him as they walked. "You went through this with Danielle and Michael."

"Yeah, but they're hardly Dana and Brendan." She sighed before she said before she voiced the thought he'd kept hidden this entire time. "If they can't make it, what hope is there for the rest of us?"

"Don't." He pleaded. "They'll make it." They continued silently down the next couple of blocks until he could smell the water and feel the mist in the breeze against his face. He tightened his hand around hers and finally spoke again. "Won't they?"

Annie rested her head against his shoulder and kissed his upper arm softly. "I think they can, but it's going to take time for him to rebuild her trust. And it might get worse before it gets better."

"Will it screw up the boys?"

"I don't know to what extent it will affect them, but it will. And probably Emmett more than Eamon. Or maybe not. I don't know how it will all play out, Babe."

"I know." He moved a few steps further off the sidewalk and into the soft earth. "I don't know if I can reconcile this with who Bren has always been for me. He's…" Auggie paused and glanced back toward her. "He's my rock, my touchstone, the example of what I want to be as a husband and a father."

"He's just a person, Auggie. He's fallible. You have to know that."

"Obviously I do. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that it's true."

Annie moved forward, allowing her hands to rest on his back. "We should head back. The others will be there by now, and you're going to ruin those shoes and pants."

He retreated back to the sidewalk beside her, now acutely aware of the wetness seeping into his socks. "Sorry. Is it really bad?"

Annie surveyed the muddy mess. "Both are salvageable, I think."

Auggie nodded as they turned back toward his parents' place, hoping that salvage would be the theme of the day.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Gwen noticed Auggie's silence at dinner. She sat beside him on the glider once they'd all moved out back to watch the girls catch lightening bugs and make s'mores. Annie held the Mason jar at the ready while Max and Sam supervised the fire pit. Troy and Leah lounged together by the pool, taking full advantage of the baby's sudden proclivity for sleep. Rhett and Ruth had already left to prepare for the big Monday to come. Brendan, Dana, and the boys hadn't stopped by at all.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Gwen asked as she took in the scene.

"Sounds peaceful." Auggie decided just before Althea screamed. "Well, to some extent."

Gwen chuckled. "It's what we've always wanted, all you boys here. Screaming kids and all."

Auggie nodded. He wasn't sure how unusual it was for Brendan and Dana to be a no-show at family dinner. He guessed not too uncommon, given that the boys were nearly grown, but he wanted to know what his mom knew, ideally without asking, but she was discreet, too. He'd just have to come out with it.

"What do you know about what's going on with Brendan and Dana?"

Gwen sighed. "Enough to know that things aren't good."

"But you're staying out of it?"

"For now," she affirmed.

"He asked for my help."

"I assumed he would, which is maybe why I've stayed out of it."

"She agreed to see me tomorrow." Auggie shrugged. "I don't know if that will do any good or not."

Gwen rubbed his arm. "Well, I think you'll have to try."

"For Brendan?"

"For all of them. It would be a shame for them to let whatever happened ruin the life they have together with the boys."

Auggie scowled. She knew more than she was telling. "What do you know, Mom?"

"It went far enough, but not too far."

Auggie felt his heart rate ramping up. "Annie and I've gone further. Both of us."

Gwen's hand appeared on his arm again, silencing him. "Not in a marriage. Not when you had that level of commitment to one another."

"No," he whispered. "But if Brendan…"

"Your brother is a good man, but he's not been a great husband lately. You're not here. You haven't experienced the day-to-day. Raising a family is hard, Auggie. Things get comfortable. Then they get monotonous. Sometimes you don't even realize it's happening."

"But you never. Did you?" He prayed she'd say no.

"No, but I've seen it. Many times. And it's tempting. You spend more waking hours with people other than your husband, and a new group of fresh-faced residents comes in every year, and they admire the things you know and can teach them, and it plays to your ego. And then one sees you as a woman rather than a doctor, and it's flattering and confusing. So many of my male colleagues just never really thought twice about it."

"You and Dad talked about this stuff?"

"Sometimes. We had to come up with ways to keep things interesting. And honest."

He didn't want to know about these struggles of his parents and his brothers. "You guys make it hard to come home."

Gwen squeezed his hand. "And you didn't even need an ambulance this time."

"Very funny, Mom."

Her voice took a more serious note. "I'm not laughing, Aug. I'm grateful."

He squeezed back, recognizing the serious moment before he quipped, "And I brought the same girl."

"We all knew it was just a matter of time. She's wonderful."

He smiled. "She is." God, she was.

"Is she happy?"

"We have some things to work through still, but yeah. I think so."

"And are you?"

He gave the most honest answer he could. "I'm almost afraid to be, but yeah. I think I am, too."

Gwen took a breath before she spoke. "I know there are a lot of thing you can't or don't want to tell me."

"Mom." Auggie's protest consisted of the one word only.

"Just let me, okay?" He nodded and allowed her to continue. "It's okay for you to do what makes you happy. I know you've made a lot of decisions out of your sense of duty, but do this for you. Do what you need to do for you and Annie to have a real shot at the long haul."

He sighed. "We're still figuring all that out."

"That's basically what you'll be doing for the rest of your life. Just remember that there's someone else in the equation now. Sometimes that gets lost when you've planned for one for so long."

"I want to do this right for once." He really did, but he still wasn't completely sure what that would entail.

"I know you do, Hun."

Annie approached, a grin tugging at the sides of her mouth. "You two look conspiratorial."

Auggie reached his hand toward her. "How many bugs did you get?"

She took his outstretched hand and walked her fingers up his arm before she took a seat on his lap. "Only about six before Althea released them back into the wild. That was all the screaming. They've retreated to s'mores making now."

"I could take one of those."

"I'll have the girls fire you one up."

"Thanks."

"Helena, two over here, please!" She scooted off his lap and beside him on the edge of the glider.

He kissed her neck. "I could have done that."

She laughed, her fingers finding the curls at the nape of his neck. "I know."

Gwen patted Auggie's leg and winked at Annie. "I'm going to see if Jim wants one, too."

"I think I ran your mom off," Annie whispered into his shoulder.

"We're tame compared to the others. Believe me. Let's just say it's not surprising that Leah has four kids."

"Auggie!"

He just shrugged with a wag of his eyebrows. About that time, Helena arrived with two gooey s'mores in her little, less than clean, hands. Annie thanked her as she and Auggie accepted the treats.

"I could get used to this," she decided between bites of s'more.

"It's tempting, no?"

"We could make this work," she ventured. "You know there's a place here."

He did. He knew a couple of guys in the Chicago facility well. He'd been Charlie Schinderman's Best Man. There could be a place for either of them there, if there needed to be.

"Yeah, but I've heard things."

She turned to face him. "About?"

He slipped his fingers between hers. "Berlin."

She sighed. "We can't discuss that here. You know that."

"But we do need to discuss it. And I'm sorry that we haven't." Remorse painted his face.

"I didn't know what you knew."

His look apologized further. "I knew. I just didn't know what to say. Which isn't an excuse for saying nothing."

She traced swirls on his forearm with her entwined thumb. "It's just an option. There are lots of options. Like staying where we are right now. That's totally an option."

He stroked her hair. "We'll figure it out. Just not this very second."

"Right. Of course." She licked her free fingers. "You want another?"

"I'm all set."

She let her hand slide to his leg. "Then let's go up."

"Yeah." He agreed as he stood. "Will they even notice if we leave?"

She glanced around. "Probably not. Everyone looks completely involved."

They headed up to the room and locked the door. Annie ran a bath while Auggie undressed. He joined her a moment later.

"Can we talk about Berlin now?" he asked as he slid in the tub behind her.

"Okay." She really hadn't expected the conversation to happen like this, but they needed to have it.

Auggie started. "Clearly it would be a big deal for your career."

"It would, but your German isn't the best," Annie pointed out.

He laughed. "No. It isn't. But I don't think that's the biggest consideration."

She leaned back against him, letting his arms encircle her. "You haven't had to learn a new city. I know that."

She closed her eyes and listened to his voice waver just a bit as he confirmed her suspicion of his true apprehension. "Not to the extent of living somewhere, no. And what would I do all day, besides getting turned around on some _Straße_ for the first six months?"

She tried her best to sound encouraging and not patronizing. "Whatever you want, Babe. You could continue to work for the Agency or with Arthur and Teo or do freelance coding or nothing at all."

"I have to work, Annie." That really wasn't negotiable.

She nodded against his chest. "Okay. I'm just saying, you don't have to do something you don't want to do. Neither of us does."

He exhaled. "I've never had that kind of say, and I know I sounded a little freaked out a minute ago, but I want you to make the decision that what will make you happy. I'll adjust. I'm good at that."

She squeezed his hand. "I don't want you to have to start over again, though. That's not fair, and it's no fun if it's only a good move for me." She continued with another, maybe more important fact. "Ultimately, it's not even our decision, though. They'll give me the job or they won't. And we can go from there."

"Okay, yeah. But if you want it to be Berlin, where we go in the end, I'm good with that. I think we should do that." He paused for emphasis. "That's what I'm saying here."

She nodded again against him. "They've asked me to come in on the 14th."

Auggie nodded. "Okay. I guess we'll have to go from there." He echoed what she'd just said but went further. "I love you, Annie. I'll go where you go. I can code anywhere."

"Auggie." She swiveled in his arms, her voice pleading with him to show her the lengths he'd always been willing to go for her. He lifted her from the water and moved them onto the bed where he gladly complied.

Later, when she woke atop him, she rolled silently to her side and retreated back into the bathroom where she drained the tub and cleaned up the puddles they'd left in their wake. She pulled her damp hair on top of her head in a sloppy bun and wrapped her half robe around her body until she found pyjamas in her bag and dressed. The clock beside the bed displayed 12:30 am. And she found herself wide awake, while Auggie was still very much asleep.

She crawled onto the bed beside him. "Hey Babe, here are some boxers. I'm going downstairs for a cup of tea, and I'm gonna have to open the door."

He stirred beneath her hands. "What time is it?"

"A little before one. Do you need anything?"

He pulled the boxers she'd given him up on his hips and shook his head. "Hurry back."

She reached down and kissed his bare chest, right along his collarbone where she knew he liked it best. "I will."

She tiptoed down the steps and found that she wasn't the only one who'd stolen away to the kitchen for a middle of the night snack. Jim had already put the kettle on to boil.

"Annie. What can I get you?"

"Just a cup of tea."

He held out a box of assorted bags for her to choose from. She selected the Sleepytime variety and handed it back to him.

"I thought you two turned in earlier," he mused.

"That was the plan, but I'm awake now."

"Auggie's still sleeping?"

She nodded. "I woke him up for a second to tell him where I was, but yeah."

"He looks so much better than the last time he was here. You, too, for that matter," Jim added.

Annie grinned. "Not having dengue fever will do that for a person."

Jim smiled back. "I guess so."

"He loves being here, even if it's hard for him to sort through everything sometimes. The past, where he fits in now, all that."

Jim nodded. "I know that's a struggle, but we've missed him. Thanks for whatever you've done that's been the impetus to bring him back to us more often."

Annie shook her head, not feeling she could take the credit for all of Auggie's recent trips home. "I think he's just in a good place right now."

"You know that's largely because of you, don't you?"

"I hope that I help. Sometimes I'm more sure of that than others."

"Does he need anything?" The kettle began to squeal, and Jim turned to the tea.

"You've done so much for both of us already. The house is amazing. And Tommy is so helpful. Auggie still acts like he hates the service, but he's thankful for the independence it gives him. And he likes to pretend he's Bruce Wayne or Mr. Big in the back of the Town Car."

Jim laughed, then sobered. "I don't know what's right when it comes to him." He shook his head as he spoke. "He's so much like Gwen. And I don't always know how to be there for her. And I don't always know how to be there for him."

Annie reached forward for Jim's hand as he passed the steaming mug across the island to her. "The more I'm around you, Jim, the more I see where the things I love about him come from. His quiet confidence, how completely he loves me, how completely he provides and keeps me safe, these are all things he learned from you. He is the finest man I'd known until I met the man he strives to make proud."

Jim nodded, unable to speak for a moment. "Thank you, Annie," he finally managed. They sat quietly for a few minutes more before Annie stood from her stool.

"I'm heading back up. See you in the morning. Thanks for this," she held her mug toward him as she turned for the stairs. "And for everything."

When she reached their room, she swallowed the last of her tea and set the cup on the bedside table before she climbed back beside Auggie. He sighed a little breath of sleepy contentment as she melded her curves to his. She held tightly onto him until the light and sounds of morning woke them both.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Cole arrived bright and early the next morning at 7:30. Jim took the first shift while Annie prodded Auggie out of bed, reminding him that he'd offered the A&amp;A babysitting services to Ruth and that both A's in the equation could easily belong to him. He grudgingly accepted the mug of coffee she offered as he moved forward to shower and shave. Once dressed, he joined the others downstairs. He managed a couple of bites of oatmeal before the baby was placed in his free arm.

"He needs to be changed, and I'm guessing you haven't done this for a while," giggled Annie.

Changing a diaper was something he had not done since getting back from Iraq, and somehow he knew that wasn't getting him out of this one. "I might need a little guidance."

"Little boys can be tricky," Gwen offered from her place near the kitchen sink. Auggie scowled in confusion.

"She means they'll pee in your face if you don't keep things covered," Annie spelled it out for him as she pulled the two of them out of the kitchen and into the sitting room where Cole's things had been stashed. "The bathroom down here is too small," she explained as she placed the blanket and changing pad on the floor. She oriented Auggie to the diaper and the wipes and the baby. "You ready?" she finally asked as she directed his fingers toward the little tabs.

"As I'll ever be." He opened the diaper, and they both recoiled from the smell. Annie quickly placed his hand back on the front of the diaper to keep the baby covered and them dry.

"This is when they blow," she advised.

"That smells awful and it feels like it's everywhere." He pulled his free hand back in disgust. "How in the hell will I get him clean?"

She placed a wipe in his hand. "We'll work it out."

Seven minutes, six wipes, and no surprises later, they returned to the kitchen no worse for the wear. The day followed suit. Auggie and Annie strolled through the neighborhood and down to the water's edge with the baby securely snuggled on Auggie's chest. They picnicked in the back yard and changed a few more diapers, Auggie going solo on the last three, by the time Ruth arrived to collect the baby.

"How'd it go?" she inquired as she took the baby back into her arms.

"It was kind of fun," Auggie decided as Annie slipped in beneath his arm.

"The baby looks fine, and you two are still standing," mused Ruth. "Seems like a win-win situation."

"How was your day?" Annie asked her sister-in-law, as the conversation moved into the front sitting room to collect Cole's things.

"Not as long as I thought it would be. I was actually able to focus on my work, maybe because he was here with you guys." She smiled down at Cole and then over at Annie and Auggie. "Either way, thanks so much for helping out today."

"It was our pleasure," Auggie affirmed.

Ruth stood. "We have to get up the road. Rhett's making dinner. I told him we'd be home before six." She hugged Annie and then Auggie. "Thanks again, guys!"

Annie walked her to the door as Auggie sunk back onto the couch. Annie found him there a few moments later. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

He smiled, reaching his hand out to her. "No. That wasn't bad. But this next part might be. Dana wants me to meet me at her mom's at 6:30. Nancy is going to Bingo."

"On a Monday?"

Auggie shrugged. "Maybe it's Bridge. Either way, I have to go soon."

"You want a ride?" she asked as she relaxed back against his chest.

"That would be nice. I know the address, but I don't know if I can do directions."

"We can figure that out, too."

He pulled her close to him and inhaled deeply. "My problem solver."

Her fingers twirled in his hair. "I do what I can." She traced the edge of his jaw before she stood. "Do you want to eat something first?"

"I thought we could grab something afterward."

"Okay. I can drop you off and head to the market or whatever."

He stood beside her. "You sure?"

She stretched to kiss his cheek. "Absolutely. You guys need some time to catch up and talk this one out."

"Okay. I should get cleaned up." At the very least he was going to scrub his hands a 15th time.

"I'll meet you in the kitchen in a few minutes."

Auggie disappeared up the stairs, and she wandered into the kitchen where Max and Sam had just arrived back at the house from a day of further wedding preparations.

"You two look like you've had a productive day," Annie offered as she pulled her chair up beside them.

"The vendors actually have everything in place and everything is moving forward according to schedule," Max exclaimed with a fair amount of relief.

"That sounds wonderful."

Sam jumped in, "Almost too good to be true."

"What is?" Auggie asked as he entered the room.

"The wedding seems to be all in order." Max filled his brother in on the short conversation he'd missed.

"I think that's why we eloped, right?"

Annie laughed. "Partially. There were other considerations, though."

"You two heading out?" Max asked.

"I'm meeting up with Dana at her mom's place."

"What about you, Annie?" Sam wondered.

"I was going to drop him off and then either swing back here or up to Troy's."

"Come to dinner with us!" pleaded Sam. We're going to a little place a friend of mine just opened. It's farm-to-table and supposed to be amazing."

She shot a glance at Auggie, almost forgetting that wouldn't work. She recovered quickly with a verbal cue. "How long do you think you'll be?"

He shrugged. "About an hour?"

"Great!" Sam pulled his phone from his pocket. "I'll tell Lev we'll be there at eight."

Auggie stood and tugged on his shirt. "Is this okay?" He had no idea what the others were wearing or if his Polo and jeans would meet whatever dress code there might be.

"You're perfect – both of you," Sam assured Annie with a nod and Auggie with a pat on the arm.

Annie glanced at her watch. "It's just after six. Is Dana's place close enough that we can walk and get there on time?"

"It's probably twenty minutes or so from here," Max ventured. "Or I can just run Auggie down there and we can pick him up on the way."

"Yeah, Annie," Auggie decided. "Let's just do that. Max knows where I need to go."

"Okay. Sure." She kissed him again. "See you in a bit."

Max didn't say much in the car. He could tell Auggie wasn't interested in small talk. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but if it involved a tense Auggie and a potentially unhappy Dana, he didn't think he wanted to be in the middle of that. He pulled into the driveway and turned in his seat to Auggie.

"You need directions? Or direction?"

Auggie's face relaxed into a smile for a second. "I'll be okay."

"Yeah, sorry."

"It's fine. Preferable to being left on the side of the road or being drug to the door." He exited. "We should be done in about an hour, I guess."

"Will do." He waited until Dana had joined Auggie on the front walk before he pulled away.

"Let's go out back," Dana suggested. "I can't be inside anymore today." She directed him toward the gate and into the backyard. She'd set out drinks on the patio table.

"You know why I'm here," Auggie started as they settled in. He'd decided there really wasn't any use in mincing words.

"Sure." She took a drink of her lemonade. "What does he want?"

"Just to talk. And if you don't want to talk to him right now, he's asking that you'd see a counselor with him to help facilitate a conversation."

She cleared her throat. "Of course. I'm not trying to be unreasonable. I was hurt, and I needed some time to work through that initial emotion."

"Yeah?" Auggie sighed. He wasn't sure what he'd expected. "I think that's to be expected. I just don't want you to get stuck here."

Dana reached across for his hand. "I know, and I appreciate that." She touched the ring on his left hand. "And you need to tell me about this."

Auggie felt warmth rising on his neck. He hadn't meant to keep anything from her. "I kind of buried the lead, I know, but it seemed like what was going on with you was a little bigger right now."

"And I'm sure that we've freaked the shit out of you."

Auggie laughed. "I'm not going to pretend that isn't completely true."

She exhaled a long, controlled breath. "I don't hate him, Auggie. And I still love him. I'm just mad at him, madder than I ever thought possible. But we'll get through it. We really will." She took another drink. "It's going to take some time, but we'll get there. I'm ready for that now."

"Will you come home?"

"My mom actually does need me here a couple more days, but yeah."

Auggie pulled a card from his pocket. "This is the name and number of a guy who can help. Or it's a coupon for a free ice cream cone."

Dana took the card and glanced at it with a smile. "You're good." She stood and moved around beside him. He pulled her into a hug.

"I'm so sorry that this happened, Dana."

"Thanks, Aug. I hate it, too."

"What's the plan for the boys?"

Dana sighed again. "They know, to some extent. Eamon wanted to come here with me. I made him stay with Brendan."

"Has he talked to them?"

"I don't know." She tapped the card against Auggie's arm. "We'll need this for them, too, I guess."

"They'll get through it, too."

"I didn't ever want them to have to factor on something like this. I thought we were different."

"I know." He thought they were, too.

She forced a smile, realizing halfway through that it was for her own benefit. "Emmett says he's talked to you about boarding school."

Auggie nodded. He and Emmett had been in discussion regarding this for several months. "I think it's a big decision, but if he's really serious about hockey, it seems like the right way to go."

"Even if it's in New England? There are good programs here, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, even Ontario."

"I think that's true, but I know he wants to see how good he really is, to play against some real competition, and where better than against the best prep players in the country? And that's back east."

"What's he said to you about his thinking?" Dana inquired.

"He's looked into a couple of places. He's talked to his guidance counselor and has been preparing for the entrance exams that most of those places require. His top contenders so far are Deerfield, Berkshire and Hotchkiss."

Massachusetts and Connecticut. Wonderful. "And the hockey?"

"The coach has been helpful, if not a little reluctant to lose half of his meal ticket, but it doesn't seem like that will be a problem."

"I mean, is he good enough."

Auggie shrugged, placing his open hands on the table in front of him. "I don't know Dana. I don't know if I'm the person to ask that. I don't have any way of gauging that on my own, but I get the sense that he is. But he's right; there's no way to know unless he plays against the best. And the best players are at these schools."

"Okay." She sounded less than enthused.

"Is it the money?" Auggie had done a little of his own research on Emmett's behalf. Tuition and fees would be astronomical.

"No. We have more than enough for schooling for the boys thanks to your parents. It's letting my 16-year-old go halfway across the country without me."

"And without Eamon."

Dana sighed again. "I just always assumed they'd be together experiencing these things, maybe dressed in matching overalls." Auggie laughed. Dana joined him for a second at that thought. "I thought I had a few more years."

Auggie's hand found hers on the table top. "I know, but he'll be okay."

"He will. And I'll just have to deal with it, I guess."

Auggie's fingers brushed his watch face. The hour had flown, as it usually did when he was with Dana. "Max'll be here soon." He stood.

She moved to be at his side. "Tell Annie I said congratulations. Do you have a registry?"

Auggie hugged her again. "Um, no. At least I don't think so. We already got a new toaster, though."

Dana smacked his arm playfully. "Then I'll have to use my imagination and judgment. And you're going to be no help whatsoever with the color scheme."

"Never am," he quipped as she directed him back to the front yard and walk. Max, Sam, and Annie pulled up to the curb a moment later. Annie jumped from the back seat and met Dana with a warm hug.

"I hope you two had a good chat."

"We did. I'm sorry things have been so crazy. It really isn't always DEFCON 1 around here."

"Hey, whatever you need. We're heading out to dinner. Come with us."

Dana gave Annie's hand a quick squeeze. "I appreciate the offer, but not tonight. I have a few things I need to take care of here, but you all have fun."

There was another round of hugs before Annie and Auggie made it back to the car. Max pulled back onto the street and into traffic.

"Do I need to know what's going on there?" he asked as they stopped at the end of the street for another car to pass.

"Not right now," Auggie decided. "I think things are already on the mend."

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks so much for your lovely reviews. I'm pushing hard to the finish, and they are so helpful!

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Chapter 10

When the sun came up on Tuesday, it was already 10 degrees warmer than Monday had been at noon. Maybe it was the heat, but Auggie found himself in a foul mood already. He wished they could sleep longer, Annie's body next to his, but she'd offered their services to relieve Leah while she headed to see her doctor. Annie slipped into a pair of shorts and threw a t-shirt at Auggie while he lingered again in the bed.

"This one was all you," he reminded her as she climbed back on the bed to impel him physically into moving.

"Right, like we're going to tell her we can't help out after I told her the exact opposite." She wrapped her legs around his waist and he stood from the bed, Annie still attached. She draped herself over his shoulder. "This one's not all day, though. We're only on the hook until noon. Leah's sister is going to meet her at the doctor's office and then they're going to and early lunch afterward." He still didn't answer; she nibbled on his ear. "And we have Maeve to help us out. How horrible can it be?"

He leaned back, pulling away from her as much as he could in their current intertwined state. "We have to go there. I'm going to break my neck on a Barbie car."

Annie kissed him again, having already thought about this objection he was bound to have. "We'll park you in the nursery with the baby, and I'll handle the bigger girls."

He rolled his eyes and plopped his hands on her bottom. "Okay. Let's get this over with."

She let her legs drop to the floor. "That's the spirit!" She patted his chest before she disengaged with him to find her own shirt. "We gotta be on the road in 15 minutes. I'll go get us some coffee."

"I'll be on my game."

"You'd better just bring some ear plugs in case your Callista whispering magic has worn off," Annie called from the hall. Auggie mumbled something back that she couldn't quite make out, but she just shook her head and continued down the steps. He joined her about 10 minutes later, his hair damp but still with a day's worth of scruff. She handed him his travel mug, her finger finding its way to his jaw. "Hmm."

"Choices, Walker. Life is all about choices." His free hand found her ponytail. "I see I'm not the only one making them this morning."

"Get in the car, Scruffy!" she called over her shoulder as she skipped down the front steps.

He grabbed his cane from the credenza by the front door and joined Annie in the driveway, climbing in the front seat of the Pathfinder beside her.

"We should sell this thing," he mused as he pulled at a loose piece of plastic on the passenger side door.

"It's paid for. Might as well run it until it dies."

"Some kid could have a lot of fun with it, though." Auggie rested his head against the warm glass.

He seemed hell bent on being disagreeable, but she wasn't biting. "It's your car. If you want to sell it, sell it."

He moved again, leaning back in the seat this time. "I don't know. I'll think about it."

"You're grumpy this morning." She reached for his hand between shifting.

He let her hand rest on his for a few seconds before he pulled it back into his lap. "Just got up on the wrong side of the bed, I guess."

"I'm sorry we've not had three seconds to ourselves."

He turned in his seat to face her, lips pursed. "It's not your fault my family is crazy."

"Your family isn't crazy, Auggie. They're just a family. This stuff happens, and in the recent past it's been them taking care of you or us. It's kind of nice to return the favor for once."

He fidgeted again in the seat and ended up facing forward. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Please don't say anything that will make Leah feel like she's putting us out." Annie implored. "This is already a rough time for her."

"No. I know. I'll rally."

"Thanks."

His voice softened a bit. "You really love them, don't you?"

"Who?"

"My family. Or, our family, I guess."

She blinked a couple of times before she answered. "Well, yeah. They kind of make it easy, even when it isn't."

"It kind of makes me love you even more than I already do."

Annie's eyes narrowed as she glanced over toward him again. "That's really sweet, Auggie, but you're still changing the diapers."

When they arrived and entered the house, Auggie stuck close to Annie. He'd been in the place a couple of times but not nearly enough to know where he was going, and he'd be willing to bet that nothing was still in the same place it had been the last time he'd come through the door. Once Leah gave the instructions, they found the baby sling and snuggled Callista to Auggie's chest, leaving his hands free. As the baby was quiet, Annie parked him in a rocker in the nursery with his headphones and music while she finished cleaning up breakfast with the older girls.

After she'd corralled them into the playroom and was fairly certain that that they'd stay close to there, Annie stole away to check on Auggie. She found him napping along with the baby. Feeling safe about that situation for the moment, Annie returned to the girls. She passed the next few hours playing dolls until their mother returned.

"Is the baby still asleep?" Leah asked as she surveyed the braided hair of every doll in the playroom.

"She's with Auggie. I've checked on them a couple of times – both out as recently as 20 minutes ago."

Leah chuckled. "Can we just keep him? Or you can keep her for a couple of months?"

"Sure. Whatever you think will work best," Annie smiled back. "How'd it go?"

"My doctor wants to check in with me a little more often, but things overall have been a bit better in the past few days. The formula change has made a difference. Maybe it was Cal's little tummy that was causing the trouble, but she's been consolable. That helps tremendously."

"I'm glad."

"Thanks for coming up this morning. I know you guys have been spread a little thin since you've gotten here. We're gonna try to give you a little bit of vacation before you have to go back!"

Annie hugged her sister-in-law's shoulders. "Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. We are fine."

"Still, why don't you guys get out of here? We may be down to swim a little later."

"They've had sandwiches and grapes," Annie recapped lunch for Leah as they headed down the hall to the nursery. Auggie had unplugged the headphones, and the two women found him and the baby listening to Mingus while Callista munched on a bottle. Annie noted a carefully wrapped dirty diaper on the changing table.

"You guys look all set," Leah decided as she approached her brother-in-law. "I can finish feeding her, though."

Auggie relinquished the baby. "We kind of understand each other, I think."

"I think you do, too," Leah gushed as she kissed his cheek.

Auggie stood. "Everything go okay?"

"It did." She cradled the baby against her chest for a burp. "I'm gonna put the others down for a rest and then we'll be down. Thanks again for this, Auggie."

"It's no problem. We'll see you guys later."

They said goodbye to the girls before he and Annie headed back to the car. They were halfway to the house when Auggie turned to her. "We've got to do something today other than feed and hold children."

"It looked like you were enjoying yourself just fine."

Auggie ignored her. "Let's go out on the boat this evening. Max can sail. Let's see if he and Sam are up for that."

"You're still feeling grumpy."

He rubbed his jawline with his left hand. "I need to shave."

"Okay. We're almost to the house."

"I'll call Max." He rested his head back on the window.

This conversation was falling short of linear. "Do you have a headache?"

He didn't turn toward her, but instead spoke to the passing landscape he couldn't see. "What?"

She reached across and touched his shoulder. "Do you feel okay?"

He sat back in his seat but still didn't turn to face her. "I don't know. I guess. I'm just in a bad mood."

"Okay."

"I need to do something. Some physical activity."

She sighed. That could be remedied. "We can run. We haven't done anything but hold babies and eat for the past four days. I could use a little elevation of my heart rate, too."

"Yeah, maybe that will help."

Annie turned down the street toward the house and pulled into the drive. When she circled around in front of the house, he jumped out. "I'll get ready."

She parked and followed him inside. Gwen stood in the kitchen with a glass of water, gardening implements hanging off her belt. "Where's he off to?"

"We're going for a run."

"Ah."

"He mentioned going out on the boat tonight. I think he's getting cabin fever. Are Max and Sam here?"

Gwen motioned over her shoulder. "Out back playing tennis."

"Okay. Great." She crossed through the kitchen and traversed the yard to find the other couple. She stood by the edge of the court while they played a point.

Max retrieved the ball from the corner before he turned to her. "Hey, Annie. What's up?"

"We were wondering if you guys had plans tonight."

"Nothing so far," Max confirmed with a quick shake of the head.

"Auggie mentioned taking the boat out this evening. Only we need a captain. Any interest?" She crossed her fingers behind her back.

"Yeah!" Max tuned to Sam. "Sound okay to you? Sunset cruise with these two?"

Sam smiled. "Sound wonderful."

"Great," Annie sighed. "We're gonna run, but maybe 6 or 6:30?"

"That's perfect. We'll meet you then."

"Thanks, guys!" Annie jogged back to the house where Auggie was sitting at the kitchen counter eating a banana. "You ready?" He held up the tether. She looked down at her ensemble. It was less than optimal. "Okay, give me five minutes." She jogged up the stairs, catching her breath for a second as she stood over the bathroom sink. While she wanted nothing more than to climb back in the tub or relax by the pool, she instead pulled on her jog bra and tennis shoes before tugging a tank top back over her head, adjusting her ponytail and heading back down to Auggie.

He was standing by the stairs, tether still in his hand, reminding her very much of a puppy. He made it impossible to remain perturbed with him. She chuckled, shaking her head.

"What?" he inquired.

She placed her hand on his upper arm, her fingers hanging up on the indentation created by the insertion of his triceps, possibly her favorite part of him.

He knew by now this equated to "bedroom eyes" or what would have been a longing look from across the room. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I really need to do this, Annie."

"I know," she whispered, her head resting against his shoulder for a second more. "Let's go."

"I'll make it up to you later," he vowed, his hands migrating down to her bum.

She said nothing more but headed toward the door, for she had it on excellent authority that he could and would.

Once they returned, they both headed to the pool. Auggie bowed out early, though, and headed up for a shower and a nap. Annie spent her afternoon alternating between swimming and sunning herself. She'd been asleep for about half an hour when she heard Auggie on the patio, looking for her. She raised on her elbow, the sight of him hitching her breath even now. She stood to meet him.

"Don't you clean up nicely," she remarked, as she took him in. He'd showered and shaved and had chosen a white linen shirt and relaxed linen khaki pants with boat shoes.

"The guys are downstairs getting ready. I told them I'd hurry you along." His thumb hooked the strap of her suit, sliding it down on her shoulder. He reached and kissed her salty skin. "Or not."

She exhaled her pleasure through her nose. "Delayed gratification is the definition of adulthood."

"Adulthood is overrated."

"This one was your idea," she pointed out. She placed her hand on his chest. "It'll be fun. And I'll be ready in just a few minutes." She extricated herself from him, not without longing, and found her way to the shower for the first time today. After standing under the spray long enough to saturate her hair then lather and rinse the soap away, she hopped out. She found a sun dress at the bottom of her bag and gave it a good shake to try to reduce the wrinkles. She chose a pair of wedge sandals right before she fashioned her hair into two French braids. In less than half an hour since she left Auggie, she was applying lip gloss on her way back down the steps to meet him.

He was waiting in the front sitting room with Sam and Max, all three of them similarly attired. They stood as she entered the room, Max giving Auggie the most subtle tactile signal. She smiled at the ease of the interaction between the two brothers after so many years of estrangement.

"You guys look amazing," Annie gushed as she took her place beside Auggie after hugs for her brothers-in-law.

"We should say the same about you," Sam pointed out.

"Thank you," she decided with a contented grin as Auggie's hand found its place securely at the small of her back.

Auggie nodded toward the door. "Shall we?" The others agreed that they definitely should.

Later, thanks to Max, he sat at the bow of his father's boat, the wind in his hair, a beautiful woman who loved him fiercely wrapped in his arms, on what he could only assume based on every memory he could conjure of a night like this could only be described as a gorgeous night.

Annie sensed a change in his embrace and shifted slightly in his arms. "Hey. What's up?"

"I dreamed of this place so many times, of nights like this."

"In Iraq?"

"And Turkey, and Colombia, and Bosnia." People tended to forget that Iraq was just the end of his field career. "But, yeah."

"But you can be here with me now." It wasn't a question. She was telling him it was true, willing it to be so.

"And I am."

"Oh, Auggie. I know you better than that."

"It wasn't that I didn't want to want this, Troy's life, I just didn't."

She sighed as she turned toward him, placing her palm on the side of his face. "I never would have found you here. I never would have even known where to look."

Auggie smiled as he kissed her hair and she relaxed back against him. "That's an excellent point," he decided as his arms enveloped her, and she wove her fingers between his. For the first time in a long time he felt something other than animosity towards the Agency. He guessed that was a start.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Wednesday. Vacation was halfway over. Auggie was awake early, just after 7. He decided to run inside and let Annie sleep this morning. He made his way to the gym in the basement where his parents kept the equipment from when he'd crashed with them back in '07. He found the whole thing equally unsettling and nostalgic as he fired up the treadmill. Halfway through his run, Max arrived.

"Hey, Aug."

"Hey," Auggie panted, not looking up. He pushed the speed and the incline with another series of grunts.

Max seemed to get the message and moved on with his own workout. When Auggie stumbled off the treadmill, wiping the sweat dripping from his face about half an hour later, he moved to complete reps with the free weights before dropping to the floor to stretch. Max stepped onto the treadmill as Auggie stood to leave.

"See you upstairs," he managed, finally acknowledging his older brother's presence with more than one word.

"Yeah," Max replied as he watched his brother exit, his hand along the wall to keep his bearings. He shook his head, wishing Auggie would let someone in to help remedy what was bothering him, but Max wasn't holding his breath.

Annie sat in the kitchen, waiting with a cup of coffee and some fruit. He wiped his face again with their bathroom hand towel he'd commandeered for his workout. She tapped the back of his hand with the handle of the mug. He swiveled it around and took a drink.

"Get it out of your system?" She knew him even better than Max. He was running from something these days.

"Mostly." He stabbed distractedly for the berries in the bowl.

"Good."

"What's the plan for the day?" he asked, trying to keep the conversation moving.

"I don't really have one. I'd like to hang around here. Leah didn't make it down with the girls yesterday, but they're coming today. I don't know what Max and Sam have up, but maybe you could go with them if you want to get out for a while."

"It's okay."

She placed her hand on his but let the subject drop for now. "Do you want something more for breakfast? Eggs, pancakes, bacon?"

"I know what breakfast foods are, Annie." He realized he'd sounded like an ass as soon as the words exited his mouth. He reached forward to where he hand had just been. It wasn't there anymore. "But no thanks. This is fine."

She stood. She knew by now there was only so much she could do for him in this sort of mood. "I'm going to play tennis with your mom."

"Where's my dad?"

"Out back, I think."

"Okay. Thanks."

She moved around behind him and hugged his neck. "I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to help you here."

His head dropped forward as he exhaled unevenly. "I know, Annie. God. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be like this, that our day depends on my mood."

She slipped into the chair beside him. "That's not what I'm saying, and you know that. I just want you to…" she trailed off. "I don't even know what I want here, Auggie. I was going to say 'be yourself' but for some reason that's not enough for you right now. I don't know how to convince you that we have a good life. I don't know if it isn't good in your mind because of me or because of you.

"This is out of my league. I don't know how to do this. But I know about the past, and I know that there are people out there who can and will help you, but they're not sitting by the phone waiting for your call. You have to take that step. You have to make a move. And whatever this is, it doesn't count."

He nodded. "I know."

"Then do something about it. You are such an amazing person, and I love you more than I can put into words. It physically hurts to see you like this." He opened his mouth to respond or even protest, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. "And I'm not talking about being grumpy yesterday and a couple of weeks ago or whatever. This started a year ago, even before everything with Henry, and despite everything we've done to 'change things up,' it's not a whole lot different."

"Maybe this just IS me," he tried without conviction.

"You know it isn't."

"I know," he whispered.

"I know you've used medication in the past, but that's not ideal. And I know you don't especially like counseling; I understand that. But you have to pick something." She stood up. "We're in Chicago. Call Ben Rosen. See if you can get an appointment."

"Okay. I'll call his office now." He genuinely liked that option. He stood and headed toward the stairs.

Annie sat down again at the bar, her hands trembling on the counter in front of her. She hadn't planned this intervention, but surely she wasn't completely off target. Something continued eating at him despite their closure on the Henry Wilcox issue, and try as she might, she couldn't get to the bottom of it. She drained her coffee cup and placed it in the sink before she cleared his dishes beside them. Then she pasted a smile on her face and walked into the sunshine, most likely to lose to Gwen in tennis.

In the bedroom, Auggie went first to his phone. If there was a chance he could see Ben while they were in town, he wanted to know and set it up. The receptionist stated there had been a 10:00 cancellation if he would like it. He stated evenly that he would, though he was fairly certain she would be able to hear his heart beating with excitement through the connection. Breathing came a little easier as he replaced the phone on the nightstand and readied for his shower. If anyone could help him get to the bottom of this funk, it would be Ben.

After he'd dressed, he descended the stairs in search of his father. He'd need a ride to Hines, and he wanted to do this without Annie. He needed to show her that he was making strides on his own to figure out things. He eventually found Jim in far corner of the back yard where his parents maintained a small vegetable garden.

Jim looked up as Auggie approached. "Hey, Auggie. What's up?"

This suddenly felt like a bad idea. He felt warmth rising in his face. "I need to head out to Hines here in a bit. I was wondering if you'd be able to give me a ride."

Jim stood, meeting his son eye to eye. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm gonna see Ben. Figured it can't hurt while I'm here."

Jim nodded a split second before he remembered he needed a verbal response. "That seems like a good idea. Sure. What time do you need to be there?"

"They gave me a 10 o'clock spot. It's almost 9, so we should probably leave soon."

"I'll get cleaned up."

"Thanks, Dad."

Jim placed his hand on his youngest son's shoulder. "You're welcome. I'll meet you out front."

Auggie walked the perimeter of the yard and found Annie and his mom deep into their game.

"Saved by my husband," Annie called from her spot on the court. She dropped her racket and came around the fence to meet him. "Hi," she greeted, one hand on his arm, one smoothing his hair. "What's up?"

"My dad's gonna run me out to see Ben. They could get me in this morning."

"Oh!" She sounded surprised. "Yeah. Do you want me to go?"

"No. Stay here. Hang out with my mom and Leah and the girls."

"Okay, if you're sure."

"I am. It'll be good to have some time with Dad."

"Okay." She sounded more assured. "Any pointers on how to beat your mother?"

"Cheat?"

"I've already tried that."

He reached forward and kissed her. "I don't think I'll be of any further help. Maybe Max has increased his skill level. Or perhaps Sam's a ringer, but she's always been the best of all of us."

"Well, thanks for nothing, but keep me in the loop."

"Of course. My dad's waiting."

She reached across and returned his earlier kiss. "Tell Ben I said hello."

"I will." He navigated the yard rather than the house, and headed around front to meet his dad.

They rode silently for the most part. Jim knew better than to ask about the job, and he'd watched Auggie and Annie interact for four days now. He was up to date on the relationship. He finally decided on Emmett and hockey as a topic of conversation.

Auggie relaxed against his seat, thankful that Jim had chosen a relatively benign but pertinent subject.

"I know he's talked to you about going east to school, but I've been looking into it some, too. He should at least check out the situation in Minnesota at Shattuck St. Mary's."

Auggie sat forward a little. "Yeah?"

"I think so," Jim continued. "It's strong academically, and their alumni are all over the NHL. And young guys. It's a current tradition."

"You should mention it to him," Auggie suggested.

"I was hoping you would. He wants your input on this."

"Why me?"

Jim sighed, "He looks up to you, Auggie. He wants to be like you." Jim cleared his throat, pausing a second before he continued. "He's not going to stay here in our little enclave."

Auggie swallowed, then he blinked a couple of times, shaking his head. "What would make him want to be like me? I'm pretty sure I've done everything the exact opposite of what any sane person would do."

"I don't know about that, Aug."

"You only know a very little bit of the story, Dad." They pulled into the patient drop-off before there was time for any further conversation, and Auggie opened the door. "I'll be done in about an hour."

"I'll be here."

It took Auggie a second to get his bearings, but he eventually found his way to Ben's office. He didn't even have a chance to take a seat in the waiting room before Ben came for him. Auggie sighed and happily accepted Ben's offer to guide as they headed back out of the clinic instead of into the office where they usually met.

"It's good to see you, Auggie, but I didn't think it would be like this," Ben started as they headed toward a shaded bench on the side lawn. Dr. Rosen glanced around, making sure they were at least mostly alone. When he was satisfied with the privacy of their location, they sat.

"I don't know Ben. It's like everything is coming off the rails. And it shouldn't be. Work is good, Annie is great – in every way. Our relationship is solid, and she's moving up at work. There are some really exciting things about to happen for her, I think."

Ben jumped in there. "And you're not happy for her?"

"It's not even that." He really didn't think it was, which perplexed him. He could understand jealousy with Annie's upward mobility or anxiety about a potential move, but this felt different. Bigger. "I'm a little anxious about what it will mean for me, but mainly I'm proud of her. But it's like everything is under water again. I want to be happy for her, with her, but I'm not or I can't be or something."

"What about the biological stuff? Sleep, appetite, energy, concentration, sex drive?"

Auggie had already taken this mental inventory. "That stuff's okay for the most part."

"So what's up? I have a feeling you've already put your finger on it."

He drew in a deep breath and slowly let the deep, dark thoughts of doubt escape his mind. "What if I did it all wrong? What if I made the wrong choices with my life? I mean, for a long time I felt I could reasonably blame the Agency or the Army, but really, no one forced me to do anything. I applied for the training program at the Farm, I scored for clandestine services, I enlisted, I volunteered to go every time, especially the last time. I did this."

"What is 'this,' exactly?"

"You're gonna make me say it?"

"If you haven't by now, I think you need to."

"I volunteered to go to war, which ultimately left me blind and the rest of the guys I was responsible for keeping safe dead."

Ben spoke softly and evenly. "You didn't kill your men, Auggie."

He nodded. "I've been through this. We've been through this."

"And now you're back there. So move on." They'd spent a long time in this exact place seven years ago. Ben wasn't about to let him get hung up here again.

Auggie continued nodding, thankful for Ben's prompting. He considered the next most important topic they could tackle. "Okay, so Annie."

"Yes," Ben encouraged. "Tell me about Annie. When did you know you were in love with her?"

He'd asked himself the same question so many times. He guessed it had to be during the whole Simon fiasco when he realized the depth of his feelings, even before he almost lost her. Multiple times. "I was engaged, for like five seconds, to my buddy Billy's sister. It didn't end well. Meaning I ended up in a fight at a bar – at a bar I like, even. And Annie was on assignment and concurrently involved with someone else, and that maybe hurt more than the break up and the fallout."

"Okay." This, Ben also recognized, was getting them somewhere. "And when did she know she was in love with you?"

"In love? I'm not sure, but I know when she says she was first attracted to me."

"When was that? What had happened? You gave a great presentation or wrote an important memo?"

Auggie chuckled as he shook his head. Ben had a point, and he was making it effectively. "No. I'd just brought in a really bad guy we'd been after for a long time."

"Hm. Okay. And I'm sure you're the best computer guy they have, but on this day you were operating in the field."

"Yeah."

"And other than you, who's she dated since you've know her?"

"Operatives, guys in the field."

"Right. And she loves you – all of you and all the choices you've made that make you who you are."

"Yeah."

"Do you not trust her judgment?"

"Of course I trust her." He did, and Ben knew it. It would be the only way they could have managed the handler and operative relationship, much less the romantic one they were currently thriving in.

"She chose you."

"Yeah, but…"

"Do you think she doesn't understand or realize the additional obstacles your injury places on a relationship, now and going forward?"

"No, she gets it."

"And what do you see as these additional obstacles?" Ben asked for more clarification as to what specifically had Auggie spinning.

"Everybody's having kids, even you. We want that eventually. I can take care of me. I can take care of her when she's out there. Another person in that equation, a baby, I don't know how that would work. Logistically, I mean. Most likely I'd be the at-home parent." He shook his head. "I just don't know."

"I'm pretty sure you'd not be the first blind guy to have and take care of a baby."

It sounded silly when Ben put it like that. "I guess not."

"There are classes and books and all kinds of resources when you cross that bridge. And you'd figure it out, just like you have everything else."

These were excellent, rational points. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

Ben placed his hand on Auggie's shoulder. "Let yourself off the hook, Auggie. The choices and decisions you've made are what makes you who you are. And that's a completely stand-up guy. I'm proud and happy to call you my friend. And I know I don't know Annie that well, but from what I've seen, she went into this relationship with her eyes wide open because she loves and respects you. She knew what she agreeing to."

His thumb rotated the band around his finger. "That's what she said at the wedding."

"Jesus, Auggie. Believe her."

"Why am I doubting her? Why am I doubting me?"

"It's okay to doubt from time to time, just don't believe yourself when you do," Ben chuckled.

Auggie smiled. "Yeah, thanks."

"You're gonna be okay, Auggie, but maybe it would be good to see someone for a while to help you get back on track."

He bristled. "I don't know Ben. I tried but I haven't found a good fit."

"Have you tried in the past five years?"

"Not really." Which really meant _not at all_.

"There are a lot more options than there used to be, for everyone. Try again."

"Yeah, okay. I'll think about it." He didn't want to lie, but he also wasn't ready to commit.

"How'd you get here?" Ben asked, bringing their session to a close.

"My dad. He's waiting."

"I'll walk back around front with you, if that's okay. Ayla says I need to get more physical activity."

"Sure. No problem. And thanks for seeing me on such short notice, even though I'm not technically your patient."

"We can work around it this once," Ben revealed as he tapped the back of Auggie's hand.

"Well, I appreciate it." Auggie took his arm just as he remembered to ask about the goings on in Ben's life. "How's the baby?"

Ben's voice melted completely. "He's so great. He just does new things every day. I don't know what I imagined, but it's better." They continued down the walk until they arrived in the front of the building. "Now don't get me wrong, it's pretty terrifying to think that this little person's life it literally in your hands, but you only think about that about 75% of the time."

Auggie laughed out loud as he extended his hand to shake Ben's. "Thanks for those parting words."

Ben took his hand and shook heartily. "Anytime! I'm here all week."

"Thanks again. And Annie says hello."

"Send her my best. And get out of here."

Auggie opened the passenger side door in front of him and slipped into the seat beside his dad.

"How'd it go?" Jim asked, as noncommittally as he could manage, although Auggie already looked lighter.

"Better than I expected," he answered honestly. "But let's go home."

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

When Auggie got out of the car, he could hear the backyard squeals from the driveway. He headed around to the back while Jim rearranged cars in the driveway and garage. As he made his way through the side gate and began across to the pool deck, small wet people bombarded him. He smiled as he accepted the girls' hugs. Usually he wasn't home long enough for them to totally warm up to him, although they hadn't ever seemed to have that problem Annie.

"Hey, girls." He couldn't help but grin. "Where's Annie?"

"Um, you mean Aunt Annie?" Helena asked.

His smiled broadened at the thought. "Yeah, that's right. Where's Aunt Annie?"

"I'm right here," she greeted with a kiss.

He inhaled deeply, taking in the mingling scents of sweat, chlorine, and sunscreen. She smelled like summer incarnate. "Hi."

"Hello," she offered in a sing-song voice as she touched his hand. He immediately took hers in his and they continued to the pool. She took a seat, placing his hand on the one beside her. He didn't take it. "You gonna sit and stay a while?"

He shook his head. "I think I'll go inside and read for a while."

"What did you bring?" She hadn't seen what he put in his bag.

"Comics."

"Which ones?" She continued to unearth new levels of his nerd-ness even this far into their relationship. She was pretty sure he had a storage unit full of costumes and action figures somewhere.

He grinned. "Daredevil."

"Don't get any ideas," she joked as she stood in front of him, running her hand down the front of his shirt. "I like you in this one piece."

He chuckled back, nipping her ear. "No chance of that. I still have plenty of fear."

She squeezed his upper arm before she let go. "Come out later, though. Okay?" He nodded, his back already to her, already on the move. Annie shook her head and slid back into the pool.

When the others came in for lunch, Annie stole away to check on him.

"Auggie," she inquired, knocking softly on the open door. "Are you awake?"

He rolled over in the bed toward her. She sat beside him and played in his mussed hair as blinked away the sleep. "Annie?"

"Do you want some lunch?"

"No. I'm okay."

"What did Ben say?"

"A lot of stuff."

"Give me the gist."

"That I should probably find someone to talk to for a while." He sat up. "That's maybe worse than medicine."

"Is it really?"

"You want to talk to someone you don't know, who knows nothing about you or what you do every day about your past and your insecurities and the things that scare you shitless?"

"No, I don't. But if it would help, I might try."

"Yeah. I know. Which leaves me between a rock and hard place."

She rubbed his back, resting her chin on his shoulder. "What can I do?"

"Don't give up on me yet."

"Oh, Baby. I don't even think I'd know how."

"I want to be better for you."

"Oh, Auggie. I don't want or need anything more." She paused. "Do you think that? Do you still think that I need you to be something or someone else? Ben Mercer? Jai? Eyal? Simon? Because I don't. I want you – the person I know and love. I don't want you to doubt or question that. I don't want you to hurt, and I don't know how to fix it." She rubbed her hand down his arm, massaging gently. "So if Ben Rosen thinks talking to a therapist will help, please do it."

He knew he'd be a fool even to try to argue with her. "Yeah," he conceded. "I'll do it. Whatever it takes."

"Maybe it would help if we went together some, too. Just to be sure we're keeping things in the right perspective." She kept talking, keeping him from getting in a word of protest. "Joan and Arthur saw someone as damage control, but maybe if we started off like that we could head that kind of thing off at the pass."

He nodded, considering her proposal. "It might. But either way, I'll start looking when we get back."

"Okay." She stood from the bed. "Come down for lunch. The girls have been asking for you."

He scooted to the edge of the bed and accepted her outstretched hand. "Sure. Why not?"

"Leah and Troy want us to go out to dinner with them tonight. Your parents are keeping the kids. I know we've been out every night this week, but she is so excited. I can't tell her no."

"It's fine. Maybe we can take tomorrow off before everything starts up on Friday, though." He was determined to get at least one day of vacation this week.

"Thanks." She kissed him. "It might be fun."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere fancy downtown. She's also given us a dress code."

"She had a baby like 3 weeks ago."

"She's like Gisele. You'd never know, or at least with a good pair of Spanx you won't."

Auggie's hands felt the outlines of Annie's curves. "She won't hold a candle to you."

Annie sighed contentedly but pulled him forward toward the door. "Lunch." She reminded him of the others downstairs.

"Right. Lunch."

* * *

Troy arrived a little after seven. By that time, Leah had settled the girls and approved of Annie and Auggie's wardrobe choices for the evening. The restaurant proved to be quite cozy, and the conversation and comradery had a surprisingly relaxing effect on Auggie. Or maybe that was the Scotch. The dinner passed without incident, and before he even knew it, Auggie found himself back in Troy's car on the way home. Once they arrived, he mumbled goodnight and followed Annie up both sets of stairs to the room. He shrugged off his clothes and collapsed onto the bed.

"Are you going to brush your teeth? Or pee?"

"Yeah." He sat up, and the color drained from his face.

"Are you okay?"

"Headache."

"Since when?"

"About halfway through dinner." He stood, visibly holding back a wave of nausea. "I'm gonna throw up."

She moved out of his way, and he nearly jogged to the toilet. She stood outside the door and listened for him to finish before she came back in. They'd figured out their migraine routine over the past couple of years. Once everything was quiet inside, she approached with several medication options and a cool rag. She knelt beside him. "How bad?"

"Shot," he decided, bypassing both the nasal spray and the pills. Either it was bad or he just wasn't in the mood to play around.

"Okay." She drew up 10 mg of Reglan from the vial into a syringe, wiped his upper gluteal region with an alcohol pad and injected the medication. She helped him stand and handed him his toothbrush. He rubbed it over his teeth a couple of times before he dropped it in the sink. Annie supported him as he stumbled back to the bed. She placed the bathroom trashcan on the floor beside him. Thankfully, he was asleep in minutes.

Once his breathing was sufficiently rhythmic, she returned to the bathroom to wash up before she rejoined him in bed. When she was done, he hadn't moved. She snuggled up behind him, her chest to his back, where they stayed throughout the night.

Auggie's movement woke her just as the sun approached the edge of the horizon. She reached her hand toward him. "Babe?"

"I need some water."

"Okay. There's a glass on the nightstand."

He scooted back in the bed so he could lean against the headboard. He found the water and took a long drink. When he finished he replaced the glass and stood. "I'm okay, just need the bathroom."

Annie sat in the bed, her knees pulled up under her chin as she watched him maneuver the room. He sat on the toilet, not really feeling like navigating the complexities of a standing aim.

"One to 10?"

"Six." He spoke just above a whisper. Not an ideal result.

"Do you want more?"

"The Treximet."

She grabbed the glass from the nightstand and two pills from his toiletry case. She refilled the glass and handed him both. He took another sip and swallowed the medicine. She sat on the edge of the tub.

"Would a bath help? Or a massage?"

"It's okay. It's better than it was."

"Auggie. When did it really start?"

He ducked. "A little after lunch."

She stood, her hand grazing his shoulder as she exited the bathroom.

He finished and followed her. "I didn't want to ruin the evening," he confessed as he climbed back in beside her.

"Did you take anything before we left?"

"Just Advil. In case I needed the Treximet later, I'd only have to wait six hours instead of 12."

"You had at least three drinks at dinner."

"It got a little better with that, too." He smiled weakly, trying to dispel her consternation. It didn't help.

"You know better than that."

"I do. Look, we have nothing up tomorrow. I can sleep it off, and we've already definitely taken the edge off. It will gone by noon, or nearly so."

She moved behind him. "At least let me do the stress points."

"Mmmhmm," he mumbled as she started the massage. She found the exact spots to release the tension in his shoulders and upper neck, and he drifted toward sleep. Until her phone rang. "Who is it?" he asked, rolling away from her so she could reach it more easily.

"It's Joan."

"Don't answer. Let it go to voicemail and then ignore her."

"Right. And that's what you'd do if it was your phone." She answered. "Joan. What's up?"

"Annie, I'm so sorry to bother you on your vacation again, but there have been some developments, and we need to discuss Berlin today. We can set up a video conference at our facility there. Auggie knows how to get there, and Charles Schinderman is a friend of his. He'll take care of your access."

"Okay."

"Bring Auggie with you. He can catch up with Schinderman."

"Okay."

"Will noon work? That's one here, and we need to get things wrapped up before the long weekend. Government agencies, you know."

"Yeah. That'll be fine. But Joan, I don't have work clothes."

"It's fine. This isn't a fashion show."

"Right. We'll be there."

"Good. See you then."

She dropped her phone on the bed and scooted down beside him.

"What did she want, and where are we going?"

"They want to video conference about Berlin today. Downtown. She said you know where to go."

"Yeah. I do. How are we supposed to get in?"

"Charles Schinderman."

"And that's why am I going?"

"No idea. She just asked for you."

"Right." He stretched his arm around her. "And when is this happening?"

"Noon."

"Excellent," he groaned. It wasn't. Forget sleeping off the migraine.

"I'm going to get up." She was sitting by this point.

"I'm going to stay here a little longer," he decided. "Wake me up at 10."

She leaned down and kissed him. "Sure."

Auggie moaned in protest when she tried to wake him a few hours later. "Okay, I'm moving," he promised. She prodded him toward the shower and laid out a pair of jeans and a button-down for him while he was in the bedroom. "You're dressing me now?" he asked when he discovered the clothes on the bed.

"Sorry. I have all this nervous energy."

He pulled her into his arms. "This is generally a good thing, when they move up meetings like this. It's when they stall that they're stringing you along."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She kissed his cheek. "Thanks. But we gotta go."

Charlie Schinderman met them at the door leading from the parking garage, making this top secret off-book facility appear much like any other multilevel office building in the downtown area.

"Auggie! It's been forever, Man. How are you?" The two old friends embraced.

"I'm good, all things considered." He turned to introduce Annie. "Charlie, this is my wife, Annie Walker. Annie, Charlie Schinderman."

They shook hands. "It's good to meet you. Auggie's told me very little about you, as that's the way things go in this business," she proceeded with a grin.

"Well, he didn't tell me a thing about you, but I've heard plenty on my own." He directed them onto the elevator. "And you must be a big deal, both of you, to warrant a video conference here. With the DCI in attendance, I hear."

Annie swallowed hard. "Joan didn't say anything about that."

Charlie shrugged. "My info is this is pretty time-sensitive and obviously high level." Auggie squeezed Annie's hand as he felt her pulse quicken. "Here we are." Charlie opened the door in front of them using a palm scanner. "Auggie and I will be over here," he said, pointing to a cluster of desks in the corner. "You'll be through there. They should be coming online in just a couple of minutes." He motioned to a small room with a conference phone and screen. Annie nodded and started in that direction.

Auggie pulled her back toward him. "Good luck, Walker."

She allowed him a little hug. "Thanks." Then, she straightened her hair and smoothed her clothes and entered the room, closing the door behind her. She had just taken her seat when the screen came to life in front of her. Joan, a man she didn't recognize, and the Director of the CIA sat before her. Joan spoke first.

"Annie, thanks again for coming in on such short notice."

She nodded. "Of course."

"We brought you in, as I stated earlier, to discuss the position of Berlin Station Chief. Your track record in Europe, Eastern Europe especially speaks for itself. We'd like to offer you that position, if you're interested."

Annie's eyes widened. "I, I'd need to discuss it with my husband."

The unknown man spoke next, almost interrupting her. "That would be August Anderson, correct?" Annie nodded, wondering what that had to do with anything, but the man continued. "I realize we may not have met before, Ms. Walker. My name is John Prescott. I oversee our Middle East and Western Asia operations." Annie nodded again, still not sure why he was here to offer her a job in Berlin. His next sentence didn't do much to clear up the situation. "In addition to Berlin, we also have a position available in Istanbul."

"As a field operative?"

"No, Annie," Joan jumped in. "This is something else."

Annie shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

The DCI finally spoke. "Ms. Walker, we're also offering you the position of Istanbul Station Chief."

"But that's not an official station, is it?"

Prescott answered. "Not exactly. You'd be set up in the Consulate."

"So, like Benghazi?"

"Yes. Very much like that."

"I've never worked in Turkey or the Middle East. Morocco with Lena, but nowhere near this region." Then it hit her. "Auggie. You don't want me; you want him."

Prescott spoke again. "We want both of you, actually. Berlin is an excellent position for you, and you're an exceptionally gifted operative as well as a quick study, but given Mr. Anderson's contacts in the region, the sum of you really is greater than your parts."

"Then, why not offer him the job?" It seemed a valid question to her.

The DCI nodded, as though he expected this response. "We've discussed it, and while you'd both remain covert, we'd need him running assets to an extent that it's unlikely he'd be able to do both positions. You were next in line for a Station, so we thought we'd give this a go."

"Obviously I'll need to talk to him and think about it."

"Of course," Joan agreed. "But we do need to get things moving soon. We'll need an answer by Monday."

Annie nodded. Three whole days. Why not? "I'm assuming I can discuss what you've said here with him in its entirety?"

Joan nodded. "You may. I know this feels like an ambush, Annie, but all of this is happening quickly. And you have to admit that the two of you together make a great team wherever you are, and I know you weren't expecting this, but please consider it."

"I will."

"Do you have any questions for us?" Prescott asked in closing.

"You said this is moving quickly. When would we need to be in Turkey?"

Prescott tapped his fingers on the desk. "Before Christmas."

Annie held her expression neutral. "Okay."

"If there aren't any more questions, Annie, I think we're through," Joan wrapped up the meeting. "I'll see you on Monday."

They said goodbye and the connection terminated. She sat in the room staring at the blank screen for a good minute before she stood.

Auggie turned at the sound of the door opening. She walked over to meet him. "Well?"

"Can't really talk about it now."

"Right," he blushed. "I know that."

Annie turned to Charlie. "I hate to take him away from you, but we need to discuss a few things."

Schinderman stood. "Absolutely."

Auggie stuck out his hand. "Really good to see you Charlie. We need to do this more often."

Charlie shook it and pulled him into a hug. "Your parents practically live in the city. Look me up next time you're in town."

"I'll have to do that. Thanks for setting this up."

"Good to meet you, Annie."

She smiled genuinely. "You too, Charlie."

He directed them back to the door and let them back into the garage, waving as they drove away. Annie pulled onto the street and exhaled once they were clear of the building.

"So?" he asked, sensing the tension in her body from the second she left the room.

"They offered me Berlin."

"That's great!" He reached over to hug her.

He was about halfway there when she finished. "And then they offered _us_ Istanbul."

His body tensed, as if frozen in time. "They what?"

"They'd base us out of the Consulate. I'd be the Station Chief, and you'd reconnect with your assets. I feel like I've heard something about ops in Syria being run out of Turkey, but they didn't say anything that specific, so I'm not totally sure."

He reclaimed control of his body and scrubbed his hand across his face, dragging it through his hair. "What did you say?"

"That I'd discuss it with you."

"And what are you thinking?"

"I don't know." They made it through three more lights before she turned back to him. "But it does sound kind of exciting, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," he managed as he broke into the grin he'd been holding in since she said Istanbul. "It does."

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: There have been some really great posts here lately that have helped inspire me to get my act together and finish this one. So maybe I'm a little more in gear. As always, your reviews help make me go, go, go!

* * *

Chapter 13

"So what do we do now?" Annie ventured as she drove them north toward Glencoe.

Auggie blinked a couple of times, as though against the bright sunlight streaming in on them, the wheels already turning in his head. "Well, we do have to consider a little more than just that it sounds pretty amazing. There are logistics."

"Right. But we had pretty much decided about Berlin, and this is WAY better for you. I mean, you know the city better than I do. And you operated in the area for how many years?"

"Yeah, all of that is true, and it was on and off for about five years, but it's a completely different situation." He explained further. "In Berlin we'd be keeping an eye on Russia but wouldn't necessarily be involved in anything firsthand. What you're talking about in Turkey is a covert listening station. And you're exactly right about Syria. We're providing arms support to the Revolution from Southern Turkey. And Russia and the Ukraine are still right across the Black Sea, so in some ways even closer than in Berlin."

Excitement teased the edges of her voice. "And you don't want to be in the middle of that?"

Auggie sighed. "Ten years ago, fifteen? Yeah. I was. I was in the Balkans in the late 90's with the Agency and then in Turkey around the time I joined the Army. And after that, Chechnya, Afghanistan and then Iraq. And I still see those images, Annie, of all that death and destruction." He shook his head. "Don't fool yourself about what they're calling it; you'd be going to war."

"I don't think I can sit here, or be in the field, or even in Berlin knowing about this. I need to do something."

"You've been doing plenty, and you would in Berlin, too."

"So now you're back on the Berlin side?"

He sighed. It was more complicated than that. "If we say yes to Istanbul, that means I stay."

"As co-station chief." They hadn't specifically offered that, but Annie felt arrangements could be made if needed to seal the deal.

He sighed. "I'm past being a station chief, Annie. I should have been one right about 2008. That was my trajectory."

She paused. "Oh. And now you're a deputy director. I see." She didn't know why she hadn't realized that before.

"It's not just that." She'd never lived so far away for so long while under Agency cover. It wasn't the same as heading in to Langley every day or even like field assignments. He didn't doubt that she could do it, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to again.

"Maybe let's just both think about it for a while and re-convene on Sunday night once we get home," she suggested.

"Yeah," he agreed. "A little objectivity never hurt anything."

"Or distance. It's all a little too exciting to think about right now."

"That, and I need to decide if I'm going to really going to leave the Agency. The decision we make here will be that answer, one way or the other."

"I'm sorry to push you into this before you're ready, and I'd only want Istanbul if it's what you want. You know I'd be happy in Berlin."

He found her arm beside him. "I know you don't mean to push, but I feel like I need one right now. I'd be happy anywhere with you."

"And then, do we even want to go? It's so far, and you're reconnecting with family here."

He had enjoyed being home, but he'd never made decision based on his proximity to his family. "We barely see them once a year, and we live in DC. We can manage a yearly trip home, I'm sure."

"That's not totally true, Auggie. Since last summer, we've been here three times."

He pondered that for a second. "We have, haven't we?"

"Yeah. Like it or not, we're getting to be homebodies."

"We probably should tell my parents. Either way, I mean."

Brendan and Dana knew. So did Max and Sam. His parents suspected, but he'd never really discussed reading them in with her before. Annie squeezed his hand. "We can do whatever you want about that. You know how it went with Danielle."

He nodded uneasily. "And I've kept things from them a lot longer."

"They'll understand." She paused. "Maybe not right away, but they'll get there."

"I don't want to add more stress. Things are pretty close to a breaking point here without me adding the CIA to the mix."

"It's up to you, hun, but it might be better in the long run."

"Or worse."

"Why don't you think about it for a little longer?"

"Yeah. We haven't even decided anything yet."

"Where did you tell them we were going today?" she realized he must have given the family some kind of explanation for their absence.

"Just for lunch and a drive."

She pulled into a food stand close to the water's edge. "Then we'd better eat something." They chose sandwiches and sat on a picnic table in the sunshine.

"Annie, if you have any reservations about this we shouldn't do it."

"I know."

"But if not," he turned his head into the breeze and closed his eyes, "it could make your career."

She reached across the table for his hand. "This isn't about my career. It's about what will be the right move for both of us."

"Let's sleep on it," he decided.

"You gonna finish your chips?"

He pushed the bag toward her. "Go ahead."

She polished off the snack, wiped her hands, and stood. "You ready to head back?"

He left his place and walked around the table to join her. "Sure."

They pulled into the driveway a little after two. Annie parked the car and wandered around back while Auggie headed inside to grab a little more sleep. Leah's older girls were splashing in the pool with their mother as Callista napped under the awning with Gwen nearby. And Annie was pleasantly surprised to find Dana sitting in a corner of shade, a book open in her lap.

"Hey, stranger!" Annie exclaimed as she took a seat beside her. "Are you alone?"

"I needed a little girl time," the other woman revealed with a smile. "And sunshine."

"We have plenty of both here, for sure!"

Dana closed her book and looked solemnly toward Annie. "I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to talk, and that I haven't even congratulated you on your marriage."

"Dana, it's totally understandable."

"I hate to be the source of drama."

"I promise that there's no drama. At least not surrounding you guys. Between the babies and weddings, everyone is quite preoccupied."

Dana smiled again, seemingly relieved to have reason to smile, as she glanced around the yard. "Somehow, I believe you."

"How are the boys?"

"Emmett called Auggie yesterday afternoon."

"Oh?" Annie hadn't been privy to this.

"The coach has set up a couple of tryouts for him."

"Oh." Auggie hadn't mentioned anything, but it might have gotten lost in the migraine fog. That happened sometimes. "That's great!"

"I'm terrified and excited all at once."

Annie grinned. "I think that's an absolutely reasonable reaction."

Gwen arrived at that moment with two glasses of lemonade and placed them in front of her daughters-in-law. "It's getting hot out here, girls. You should get in the water soon."

"I might run in and check on Auggie first."

"He headed straight upstairs," Gwen noted.

Annie nodded. "He had a headache last night that wasn't a whole lot better even early this morning, and we didn't have anything planned for the day originally, but then we had to go into the city for work." She stopped suddenly, in total disbelief of what she'd just revealed. Her face burned crimson. She'd never been so careless, or let her guard down like that.

"Isn't that just like the Smithsonian to need you to check out some private collection in the middle of your vacation?" Dana covered with a wave of her hand before nonchalantly turning her attention back to the paperback in her lap.

Annie shrugged, recovering quickly. "It's all part of the job."

Gwen glanced from one daughter-in-law to the other without saying anything for a moment before she stood. "Well, don't stay in the sun too long. You're already looking a little red, Annie."

As soon as Gwen's back was turned, Annie caught Dana's sideways glance. The older woman managed a wink and a smirk of a smile, her eyes barely leaving the book. When a reasonable amount of time had passed, Annie stole away to fine Auggie.

She could tell he was asleep when she walked in the room, and she knew he needed it. This could wait until he woke up, but she could also move that process along. Annie rooted around in her bag, placing it on the bed by his feet as she did so. He slept through about 30 seconds of that.

"Annie?"

"Hm?"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Looking for my swimsuit."

"It's in the bathroom." He was sitting up now, and she was lying. "What are you really doing?"

"I needed to tell you something."

"You could have just tapped my shoulder."

"I just told your mother we went downtown for work today." His eyes widened. "And Dana covered for me seamlessly. I mean, Joan couldn't have done it any better."

"Dana, huh?" He shrugged. "Who'd have known she had it in her?"

"We have to tell your parents. I know I said it was up to you, but it's starting to feel dishonest."

"Annie. We're dishonest every day of our lives."

"But not always with the people we love."

"You're telling me you'd have told Danielle if you'd had a choice?"

"No, but…"

He didn't let her finish that thought. "I've been doing this a lot longer than you have. Do you think I haven't considered all of this a million times? After Iraq? When I'm fumbling around in their basement trying to figure out whether or not my life is worth the hassle? Yeah. Telling them to blame the CIA crossed my mind."

That pissed her off. "Don't you dare play the blind card, Auggie, and don't patronize me."

He countered with his own quickly worded but not very well thought out response. "Why don't you just take your swimsuit downstairs and let me finish my nap?"

"Fine." She turned on her heel, the swimsuit still hanging in the bathroom, and left the room.

She made it to the top of the stairs before he called for her from the doorway. "Annie, wait." He heard her stop as he stepped into the hallway. "Come back. Please."

"Not if you're going to talk to me like that."

Auggie sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. But let's not have this conversation in the hall. Okay?"

"Everyone is outside. There's no one to hear us."

Knock-down-drag-out fights weren't how they usually played it; there wouldn't be any shouting or even raised voices. He just needed to touch her, to feel that she was still there with him. He reached out his hand to her, something he may not have done a year ago, but he was learning how mature relationships worked. "Annie. Please?"

She walked back down the hall to meet him, reaching up to kiss his cheek. "Finish your nap. I shouldn't have interrupted. I know you didn't sleep well. We'll talk later."

"I feel fine, Annie. I was just being an ass."

He heard a little mirth injected into her voice. "Well, since we're all on the same page here."

He reached forward and kissed her for real. "I'll change and join you guys downstairs in a minute."

"No, seriously. It's just the girls down there now. Your dad took Max and Sam to the club and then the marina. You guys are going out on the boat for the bachelor party tomorrow afternoon, and then there will be the rehearsal dinner and then the wedding. There won't be much more time for rest on this vacation after today. You should get some sleep while you can."

"Yeah. Okay. Just a little bit longer." He squeezed her hand. "And I know you're right about my parents. I just have to get there on my own, too."

"Well, you'd better hurry before I reveal the nuclear codes."

He laughed. "You don't know the nuclear codes."

"Oh, don't I?" teased Annie.

Auggie kissed her forehead, pulling her close to him. "No. You don't. But you may want to keep Dana around, just in case."

She touched the edge of his jaw, "Are you really feeling okay?" He looked painfully tired, spent.

He nodded. "Not perfect, but okay."

"Try to sleep a little bit more. I'll come get you for dinner."

He took a step backwards toward his bedroom. "Okay."

She watched him climb into bed from the doorway before she sheepishly entered and crossed to the bathroom. "I guess I really do need my swimsuit," she revealed.

He settled in the bed with his pillow behind him. "I wondered if you'd come back in for it." He smiled. "Have fun."

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I've been in a very productive mode lately, which means I get to watch more episodes of all my favorite shows. And I always thought summer was overrated. Anyway, I know there are still some readers out there, as there's some great work showing up daily. I hope you enjoy this one.

* * *

Chapter 14

Either the nap or the full night's sleep that followed recharged Auggie. He wasn't sure which had done the job, but when he woke on Friday morning, he felt like a new man. He almost hopped out of bed, letting Annie sleep as he showered and got ready for the day of pre-wedding celebration on the lake.

She was still sleeping when he'd finished and dressed, but he needed her eyes for a minute. He shook her shoulder softly.

"That's how you prefer I do it, then?" she asked sleepily.

He snorted, as obviously their disagreement from yesterday was not completely forgotten. "It's a bit nicer this way, maybe." He reached down and kissed her ear. "Will you look me over?"

She sat up, pulling him toward her by his hand that was now in hers. "Always," she growled.

"Seriously, Annie." He realized he'd lived a little over seven years without sight and without anyone checking out his clothes, but it was kind of nice to have a pair of working eyes around, just in case there was a sock stuck to his shirt. She enjoyed his dress unzipping abilities, too. She often bemoaned the fact that there were items in her wardrobe she just couldn't wear while living alone because she couldn't fasten them by herself. The relationship was truly symbiotic.

"Stand up by the wall," she requested, reluctantly releasing him. He complied. "Now turn around. Slowly." He did that, too. "Yeah. Looks good. Now take it off and get back in bed with me."

"Annie!"

She glanced at the alarm clock. "It's 7:30. You have plenty of time before we meet the others."

"Oh. It felt later than that."

"Did you even check your watch?"

"I think it's still set on Eastern Time."

She patted his pillow. "Seriously."

"Why don't you get up and we'll go down for breakfast?"

"Or, you could get back in here and we could both work up a sweat and shower together and _then_ go down for breakfast." Her fingers found his triceps insertion again as she let out a tiny but desirous moan. Annie meant business.

Auggie tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it in the direction of the armchair. "Yeah. Okay. Sounds good."

"Stop talking."

He did.

* * *

By 9:30, they had joined the others downstairs for breakfast. Max nudged Auggie's shoulder as he took a seat at the table.

"Looking out for the environment this morning, August?"

"Huh?"

"You're both spick-and-span, and I only heard the shower running once."

"I showered earlier," he sputtered.

His hand rested on Auggie's shoulder with a flip toward the curls hitting his collar. "And yet, your hair is still damp. Odd, no?"

Auggie lifted his left hand, displaying the titanium band. "It's legal."

"This time," agreed Annie with a wink toward Max as she placed a coffee mug over Auggie's right shoulder.

"Now we're the only fornicators around, I guess," confessed Max.

"Only for a few hours more," piped Sam from across the kitchen where he was manning the waffle iron.

"Please tell me Mom and Dad are not in this room," Auggie begged.

Annie slid into the seat on Auggie's other side and kissed his shoulder. "The coast is clear."

"They're taking a walk," Max reported as Sam turned to take the newcomers' orders.

"When are we meeting up with the others?" Auggie asked a few moments later, three or four bites into his waffle with its associated mound of strawberries.

"Around 11, at the marina." Max noted from his place at his brother's left. "Listen, Auggie. I realize now that this may not have been the best weekend for an outdoor wedding, and I don't know your situation exactly, but a lot of the guys who'll be at the ceremony have been in combat zones. We considered moving everything inside tonight, but it just wasn't feasible. So we wanted to let everyone know to make the necessary arrangements."

Auggie's brow furrowed as he shook his head. "I don't understand where you're going with this."

"It's July 4th. There will be fireworks tonight and possibly tomorrow depending on the municipalities. I didn't even think about it because it hasn't been a problem for either of us, but I know it can be rough."

Auggie didn't realize he'd balled his fist around his napkin until Annie's fingers slipped on top of his. How had that possibly slipped his mind? He hadn't brought any Xanax. And if he did have to take it, he felt like a wired zombie, if that even made any sense. "Oh. Yeah," he exhaled nearly choking on the words, his oral mucosa suddenly arid. "Thanks for the heads up."

Max shifted uneasily in the wooden chair, causing it to creak beneath him, realizing this revelation would create a problem for his brother. "Oh, God, Auggie. I'm sorry. I should have thought about this. I would have said something earlier."

He shook his head, his stomach already churning in anticipation of what would most likely happen to his body in the next few hours. He lived in DC for Chrissake. If he were going to become acclimated to fiery explosions in the sky, he figured it would have happened by now. "It's okay, Max. It'll be okay. Sometimes the build-up is worse than the actual event," he lied.

"Well that makes me feel a little better."

Auggie forced a smile. "I have strategies. You know? Gotta have strategies."

Max placed his hand on his brother's arm. "I'm so glad we can do this here, that we're all together." He stood. "We'll get this place cleaned up and meet you guys out front around 10:30?"

Annie feathered her fingers across Auggie's hand again, sensing he'd zoned out somewhere in the past 30 seconds. "Huh? Oh yeah. That sounds good." He placed the crumpled napkin on his plate, picking it all up as he stood. Max took it from his hands.

"I got that."

"Thanks." Auggie turned toward the back yard without another word.

Max exhaled slowly, eyes widened in a questioning expression meant for Annie.

She nodded compassionately, mouthing "It's okay," before she followed Auggie outside. By the time she joined him, he was sitting on the glider, legs pumping it into motion.

"Hey?"

He turned toward her. "I forgot all about this."

"There's some Xanax in the bag. I saw it the other night with the migraine."

"I don't want to take them." He sighed, dropping his head in his hands. "I don't want to need to take them."

Her fingers found the back of his neck. "We can see how it goes. Sometimes it's fine, manageable."

He shook his head. "Most times it's not. And I shouldn't drink if I'm going to take the pills."

"We'll leave before they start," she offered.

"I don't want to live like that. I don't want to leave my brother's wedding because of this shit."

"I don't think you want me to have to scrape you off the floor, either." They'd come close to that the year before when he'd tried to power through without anything but several beers.

Auggie exhaled. "No. I don't want that."

"We'll figure it out," Annie promised. "We always do."

"I know."

Annie's fingers continued to work on the back of his neck, migrating up into his hair and around to his right temple. "You were anxious before we left home. Now you're letting the prospect of anxiety make you even more anxious."

"I know," he sighed, feeling some of the tension in his jaw release and she massaged.

"I'm right here." She tended to keep in physical contact when he needed reassurance.

"I know."

She stopped attacking pressure points and leaned in to kiss his closest cheek. "You sure do know a lot."

Auggie grinned, almost relaxed now. "I know."

She stood. "Do you need anything upstairs?"

He shook his head. "I think I'm all set."

"And he knows more words."

Auggie laughed, his eyes crinkling with amusement. "God, I love you."

She reached down and kissed him again. "I know." He held onto the embrace a little longer than usual before she left him on the porch. When she returned to the kitchen, Max and Sam were still washing dishes.

Max shot Annie a worried look. "Will he really be okay?"

Annie nodded. "He'll be fine."

"I can't believe we didn't anticipate this." Sam came up beside Max and placed a hand on his back. "He's not the only one." Max shook his head in disbelief of what he felt to be a gross oversight on his part. "I came through it all very much unscathed," he sighed. "And I feel like such an idiot. My brother was blown the fuck up, and I plan my wedding under fireworks."

Sam spoke softly close beside Max, attempting to keep him calm. "It's done now, Max. And you heard Annie. Auggie will manage."

Max ignored his fiancé and focused singularly on Annie's face. "I'm still working through some of this stuff, Annie."

She nodded. "It's really okay, Max."

"I know it's been a long time. And I know he's amazing at anything he does, but he's my little brother, and I left him." Max's voice broke. "I didn't know, but even when I did, I didn't…I couldn't…I didn't…" Sam moved his hand from Max's back to his arm.

"Max." The one word from Sam silenced him.

Annie reached across the island with a sad smile. "I know that the two of you have discussed so much. But he can't hang on to the bad stuff. It just doesn't work well for him. He's come to terms with the really heavy things, the past, the present."

"But I haven't," protested Max.

"And I know he appreciates that you need to work through them in your own time."

"I don't want to upset him."

Annie patted his hand again. "He's not upset, Max. He's just had to move on."

"That makes sense." He glanced from Annie to Sam and back. "I think I'm just a little more emotional than usual today."

"That makes sense, too." Annie smiled at both of them. "I'm gonna go finish up getting our things together before it's time to go. He's out back if you feel like there's more to say. He's actually quite good with closure."

"Thanks, Annie." Max summoned a nervous half-smile directed toward Sam as she walked away. "I'm gonna go out there."

Auggie sat silently, eyes closed. He perked up as the door opened. "Max?" The footfalls were too heavy to be anyone else.

"Hey."

"What's up?" Auggie had a pretty good idea, but he had decided to humor his brother.

"Have a minute?"

Auggie nodded. "Sure. But do you? These are big, busy days."

Max sat beside him. "The boat won't sail without me. Without us."

"I guess not." Auggie shifted a little to his left, turning toward Max. "What's on your mind?"

"I just wanted to check in."

Auggie nodded. "You just did. With me and then I'm guessing with Annie, too."

Max drummed the armrest to his right with antsy fingertips. "I know you don't need this, but I do. I'm struggling here."

"You should talk to someone," suggested Auggie.

"I want to talk to you."

"It's not that I don't want to do that, Max." Auggie's hand found a loose button on the seat cushion. He twisted it. "I just don't know if I can. I'm not doing so great right now, either."

"I know you went to Hines yesterday. Maybe I _should_ do something like that, but I'd feel like such a fraud." He paused, but Auggie let him finish his thought. "I'm fine. I didn't get shot or blown up or lose anyone close to me. I skated through, Auggie."

"And you feel guilty about that." Auggie nodded knowingly; he and survivor's guilt were in the middle of a long and tumultuous relationship.

"Well, yeah."

"That's a real thing, Max. This?" He waved a hand in front of his face. "Way easier to deal with than coming back without my guys."

Max nodded silently, knowing that was all wrong, but he couldn't find words right now.

Auggie continued. "No one knows what you're there to talk about. And apparently it's actually preferable for one to achieve a minimum status of 'functional' in life and relationships."

"It's more than that." Max paused again. "It's not just about me."

Auggie slid his hand across the seat until it abutted his brother's leg, allowing the back of it to rest there. "I'm okay, Max. I'm better than okay."

"You just said you weren't doing great," Max protested.

"That doesn't have anything to do with you. I promise."

Max sighed, finally ready to lay it all out. "I should have been here."

Auggie considered his response before he nodded slowly. "You should have."

"And I'm so sorry. I regret it every day."

Again, Auggie measured his words. "I understand and appreciate that, but we have to move past this. I hoped that we had."

The time they'd spent together during the Nevada to California move represented a great start, but Max had come to the realization that he hadn't grieved sufficiently, if he even had the right to grieve. "I thought that I had."

Auggie decided to open up a little bit more. Max obviously needed that from him. "There are moments. And this week has sort of been one. I'm still weighing some options about things at work, but overall I am happy. My life is good, really good. Sometimes I just need a tune-up." He shrugged. "That's what Ben and those guys are there for."

Max considered this. "You're making a lot of sense." He decided to mull that over a little longer as he proposed a subject change. "Listen, doing the whole groomsman thing would be over the top, even for us."

Auggie chuckled. He'd heard rumors of swans and butterflies and all other manner of fauna and flora. "I understand that. We just went with witnesses."

Max continued, his rate of speech accelerating to stop Auggie from interrupting in any manner of protest. "But if we had, I would want you up there with me. And since you're not, I wanted to ask you a favor. If it's too short notice, I get that, but would you consider giving a toast? It will be early in the evening."

"Yeah, Max." Auggie couldn't keep the grin off his face. "Absolutely."

"Yeah?"

"Of course. There may be some gaps in the stories, but I'm sure I can come up with something good."

"Thanks, Aug."

He nodded as his fingers brushed the face of his watch. "We'd better get a move on."

"You'll need shoes."

He considered where they might be. "I think they're by the front door. Annie'll find them," he decided with a shrug.

"She's something, Aug."

"Isn't she? I've done all this without her, but it's a hell of a lot better with her around."

Max touched Auggie's arm. "And we're good?"

"We are." Auggie nodded. "We really are."

Auggie waited for Max to stand, but instead his brother's voice dropped to a whisper. "You could have died."

Auggie nodded as he realized they weren't quite through. He held his own tone as even as possible, maybe even a little detached. "A lot of guys did, including three of mine."

"I talked to Mom last night. I didn't know the full extent of things."

Auggie shrugged, longing to shut this down quickly. "You knew enough."

"Does Annie know?"

He nodded once. "She also knows enough."

"Auggie," Max chastised. "What about Dana and Brendan?"

"They came to Walter Reed."

"Auggie!"

"I didn't, though. Didn't die. That's what ultimately matters." He wasn't offering any more information.

"You lost your spleen!" Max exclaimed.

"I'm told that I don't need it. And apparently I was bleeding to death because of it, which was decidedly problematic." Auggie shrugged. "Personally, I was a little more preoccupied with the blind thing at the time. Still causes a few more problems than the missing spleen ever has," he finally spat. He hadn't intended to snap at Max, but he wasn't quite ready to apologize for it, either. He closed his eyes and counted to ten.

"Right. Sorry. We don't need to rehash your medical history right now."

He sighed as he finished his cooling count. "Or ever, Max. I swear that I'm fine."

"I know. I do." Max did. "All the others have had time to deal with everything, and due to my own stupidity I'm about seven years behind them."

"We'll get you through this, Max." Auggie nodded solemnly, trying hard to stifle the erupting grin. "I promise."

"Now you're just being an ass."

Auggie shrugged, suddenly letting go of his carefully controlled facial expression and allowing the smirk to extend to the laugh lines at the corner of his eyes. "I didn't know how else to field this one."

"I'm gonna leave you alone." Max stood.

Auggie rose to join him. "Max. We're good. I'm good."

"I know. That's actually obvious." And it was.

"And that a good thing."

"I know."

Auggie wiggled his bare toes. "I'm gonna need shoes."

"I'm sure Annie's getting them," reasoned Max.

"Probably," agreed Auggie as he accepted Max's guide. "Let's go find the others and get the show on the, uh, water."

Max stepped toward the door and the remainder of the weekend. "Excellent idea."

TBC

* * *

A/N #2: I know Auggie clearly doesn't have scars that would be associated with even a laparoscopic splenectomy, but I've been playing around with the idea of an even earlier prequel than I've previously written covering more of Auggie's backstory. Which now includes a missing spleen and very discreet trocar scars? More to come on that one.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: This started out as mostly fluff and then gained a little substance. I tried to break it apart, but the whole things goes together, and there wasn't an organic break that I could really see. I'd like to thank Millemini for her lovely story "Fireworks" which has served as an inspiration here. It's a great story, and you should check it out! I also hope you stick with this one - it's about twice as long as most chapters. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 15

Annie stuck by Auggie's side when they arrived for the festivities. Although he shooed her off a few times to interact with other people, she drifted back to his side every 20 minutes or so. Dana also ran interference, giving him a run-down of the goings-on when she saw him standing alone.

"Hey, stranger," she greeted, putting her arm through his. "You clean up nice."

He smiled down at her with a nonchalant shrug. "I try."

"Annie looks like she's having fun."

"I know. She's laughing a lot." Auggie agreed before he sobered. "Don't let her hang around over here with me all day."

"As long as you let me stay instead. I'm not so sure I want to talk to people. Not today."

"That's understandable. Are you going out on the boat?"

"Maybe in a little bit. I'm going to grab a drink now, though. Do you want something?"

He scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure yet."

"What would be the deciding factor?"

"Whether or not I'm going to take something later on tonight to keep me from wigging out once the fireworks start."

"Literal fireworks?"

"Yeah, in my attempt to avoid the figurative ones."

She glanced at her watch. "It's barely noon. You can be drunk and sobered up by the time it gets dark."

"Then I should definitely be drinking," Auggie decided as he fell in step beside her on their way to the bar.

"Have you met any of Sam's family?"

Auggie nodded. "His mother and brother a little earlier. Nice people. Only yelled a little."

Dana rubbed his arm. "Aunt Gert is coming tomorrow, so brace yourself for that."

"I'm not sure if she's deaf or if she thinks that I am," Auggie reported.

"Maybe a little of both," snickered Dana.

"What are you two laughing about?" Annie inquired as she approached.

Dana greeted her with a hug. "We're just talking about how many people are going to slash have already yelled at Auggie this weekend. The over/under is four."

"I'll take the over, because I know two already have," Annie chuckled as she leaned against his chest.

"How do you know that?" Auggie knew he'd spent most of the morning up at the house while Annie had been near the dock of the rented lake house that was serving as "wedding central" for the rest of the weekend.

"I heard them all the way down on the boat!" The threesome laughed as Auggie's arm settled around her waist. "Are you coming out? Your dad has asked me a couple of times if you are."

"Yeah. Sure. Dana?" He turned to address the other woman. "You gonna come with us?"

"Thanks, but it looks like Leah could use a hand." She nodded toward her sister-in-law across the room who was now knee deep in children, having somehow ended up with baby Cole as well as her own four. Dana squeezed Auggie's free arm. "I'll catch up with you guys later."

The two of them started through the yard toward the boat. "Your nose is getting red," Annie noted. "Do you want some sunscreen? Or a hat?"

"Sunscreen," he decided as he ran a hand through his hair. "Don't want to undo the do."

"You look great," Annie assured him with a kiss.

"Except for my current resemblance to Rudolph."

"Well, there is that." She pulled the tube of sunscreen from her pocket. "Here." She reached for his nose and rubbed.

"Thanks." His hands slid from her shoulders to her bare arms. They stopped at the edge of the water. "Are we up?"

"Almost. They're pulling in now. It will take a few minutes." She directed him to a pylon, and he half sat half leaned against it.

"I used to love this. We all did." He meant to sound matter-of-fact, but his tone slipped more toward nostalgic.

Annie acknowledged that with a soft hand on his arm, but kept the conversation light and general. "Max has been out all day long. It's a gorgeous day. So bright and sparkling blue everywhere."

"But not too hot," he mused. A day like this in DC would be almost unbearable.

"The breeze helps," Annie agreed. "We don't have to go out, if you don't want."

"No, I do. But wait. How did we all end up together here? I thought it was supposed to be the guys."

"Oh, yeah. That changed last night while you were upstairs. Since Max and Sam would both be at a bachelor party, and the families really hadn't had a chance to meet, the idea of a boys only party was scrapped and a family day was scheduled instead."

"Makes sense." Auggie nodded.

"No one seemed too upset about the loss of a bachelor party except for Troy."

"Sounds about right." Auggie smiled with a shake of his head.

"His youthful exuberance is endearing."

"He's a good guy."

"He really is, but he's not the only one." She kissed his cheek as she ran her hand down his chest. "Actually, if you want to get out of here for a while, we could head back up to the house."

"We're not doing that at my brother's pre-wedding party."

"Don't count on that, Buddy," she cautioned, slipping her hand into his back pocket, her breath warm against his neck.

"Annie," he hissed as he pushed her away playfully. "Not here, Babe. Not now." Behind them, the older girls squealed as Troy chased them through the yard while Emmett and Eamon (both of whom had girls with them today) splashed around in the lake following the execution of dives of varying degrees of difficulty from the side of the boat. Their dates seemed impressed to varying degrees as well. Rhett and Ruth strolled by the water's edge, an ease about them Annie had never experienced before. Her laughter carried across to where Annie and Auggie stood. He closed his eyes as he took it all in. "You really would be okay giving up our part of all this?"

Annie took a deep breath. "Well, after tomorrow, everyone will be married, and we'll figure out how to get home when we need to. That sort of is our part here, isn't it? We come and go." She stopped. "Unless you don't want to go. We don't have to go, Auggie. We can stay in DC. Or we can look into a transfer here, if you want."

"I don't know what I want, Annie. I swear if I did, I would tell you, but I don't know how to make this decision."

She thought they'd decided not to do this today, but she knew once he had something stuck in his head, there was no getting rid of it until he'd resolved the situation. "It's okay. We'll sit down and make a list or something. You're good at lists."

"I have been known to make a list or two." He ran a hand through his hair. "But that's cautious, mature Auggie. I didn't use to make lists."

She pressed herself against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and let out a little sigh. "I didn't use to think about where I want to live with my husband and raise our theoretical children, but I do that now. Because of you."

"Yeah?"

"Of course. I want all those things for us, Baby. I just don't know how it fits yet."

His hands found their way to the edges of her face and his fingers migrated back into her hair. "I know, and I'm not trying to pressure you to do something that I want."

"But we both need to be happy."

"I know." He squeezed his eyes tight again. "I know that."

She made a little space between them as Jim waved for them. "It's our turn on the boat. Try to look a little less miserable or you dad is going to grill me for the rest of the evening. Okay?'

He nodded, collecting himself. "I'm sorry, Annie. And today seemed like it was going to go better."

"We can have sex. If that will help."

Auggie chuckled, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "How chivalrous of you, my dear. Thank you for that lovely offer, but we'd better get on the boat."

"There's a little cabin downstairs."

"No. Absolutely not," Auggie scolded. But the smile had won out over his previous scowl. "Well, probably not."

Annie's hand traveled up Auggie's back. "Jim's waiting for us."

Auggie exhaled. "Yeah. Let's go." He took her elbow as they navigated the dock and stepping onto the boat.

"Auggie," Jim greeted, giving his son a landmark.

Auggie reached his hand toward Jim to steady himself. "Hey, Dad."

"It's one big step up then down." Jim had borrowed a larger boat from a friend at the club, so Auggie's previous night out with Max, Sam, and Annie would be of no help today.

"Thanks. I like my teeth where they are," he decided with a smile.

"So do I," Annie agreed as he moved his hand from Jim's arm to hers.

Jim clasped Auggie's shoulder as he smiled toward Annie. "You guys want to grab seats and we'll get out on the water?"

"Sure." Annie glanced around. "Where should we go?"

"As far forward as we can get," Auggie requested.

"I see just the place." They moved toward the bow and took two seats on the starboard side. Annie settled in, and Auggie leaned against her. She rubbed her fingers through his hair. "Don't think about anything now. Just be here and have this time with me and with the family."

"I'm trying."

"I know you are. I just don't want you to worry about things we can't do anything about today. Or tomorrow. I know you want to be in this moment."

Auggie's hand rested against Annie's arm. "I do. I want to be here with you."

Annie knew he meant it, but he was still thousands of miles away, his head spinning with possibilities.

Once they arrived back on land, the families joined together for the trip to the club for lunch and golf. The rehearsal would follow at the Botanic Gardens with dinner at a restaurant down by the water, followed by the previously discussed fireworks.

Auggie planned to duck out of the golf outing, but as he was settling down into on the bed with his headphones, a knock on the door roused him.

"Who's there?" he asked as he crossed the room to the door.

"It's Rhett," his brother answered as Auggie opened and let him in. "I wanted to make sure you're coming to the club."

Auggie tried to hide his annoyance at this request, but some still slipped through. "It's kind of pointless, Rhett."

"I thought you might say that, but I really think you should come. Sam's brother had shoulder surgery a few weeks ago, so he's not playing. With the twins, they have two complete foursomes without me. I thought maybe we'd just tag along in our own cart."

Auggie hadn't considered that any of his brothers might not play. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. No one needs to suffer through watching me try to play golf, but I want us to be part of the group. We don't get too many days all together, you know?"

Auggie grinned as he recalled what a horrible golfer Rhett had always been. "Yeah. Okay. Do I have to wear weird pants?"

"Nah. You're good as is."

"Okay. I'll meet you downstairs in a few minutes."

Rhett rested his hand on Auggie's shoulder for a moment. "Great. See you down there."

Auggie closed the door and joined Annie, who was freshening up from the morning in the sun in the bathroom.

"Who was that?"

"Rhett. He wants me to go golfing with the guys. He says he and Sam's brother aren't playing, but that we should all still go."

"That actually sounds like it could be fun. Are you going?"

"Yeah. I think so."

"Good. Apparently someone's coming to do spa treatments for the girls this afternoon. They'll be here tomorrow for hair and makeup, too."

Auggie shrugged. "See, and we weren't sure there were any benefits to me having a gay brother as opposed to yet another non-gay brother."

Annie hiccupped a little laugh. "I don't think that's a thing."

"No. I guess not."

"You'd better get downstairs. The guys will be waiting." She reached up and kissed his cheek. "And have a beer or two. It will be fine."

"I might."

"I'll drag your ass back up here if you get too rowdy."

His fingers traced the lines of her neck. "I'll hold you to that."

She planted one last kiss on his nose. "Go!"

He crossed the room and grabbed his things on the way out the door. "See you later."

By the time they reconvened to dress for the rehearsal, the girls had been sufficiently pampered and the men appeared refreshed from their nine holes. Auggie headed for the shower as Annie put the finishing touches on her outfit.

"Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah. I really did. Rhett is hilarious." Auggie waited for the water to warm up before he stepped underneath.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. And smitten with that baby." He washed his hair and lathered the rest of himself with soap.

"Well, you know I love Ruth. And Cole is absolutely precious."

"I'm glad they're happy and that we've gotten to know them better. I feel like I just didn't understand either of them for so long."

"I know. This past year has been so helpful in that respect."

"And so completely useless in other ways," Auggie added as he retrieved his towel.

She groaned inwardly, realizing she'd opened the door to his restlessness again. "I know that, too."

He rallied on his own, though. "But today is about Max and Sam, and we're going to go eat rubber chicken with the family."

"Yes. We'll do that." They made their way into the bedroom where Auggie dressed in the clothes that Annie had placed on the bed. "And maybe stick a couple of these in your pocket?" she suggested as she placed a tiny pill box containing a few Xanax tablets in his hand. "Just in case," she added.

"Yeah. Just in case." He hoped that he didn't need them and that the night would go off without a hitch.

"We should head down soon. They have two vans running back and forth to the venue."

"Why do we have to go to the rehearsal if we aren't in the wedding?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but they've asked and we'll go."

"Yeah. No, of course."

"And we should go."

"Shoes?" He had no idea what he was wearing. Annie didn't normally pick out his clothes, but when she did, he was even more clueless than usual.

"Here." Annie crossed the room to the closet. "These are the right ones."

"You know, I'm getting complacent with you around," he mused as he sat on the bed to put them on.

She pecked his cheek as she handed them over. "I'm happy to let you find your own shoes if you want."

Auggie grinned, reaching up for a real kiss. "I'm not complaining, Walker."

"Good. Now let's go secure us some of that chicken."

They sat in little wooden chairs as the wedding planners flitted between aisles, draping tulle and bunting on columns of flowers and topiaries.

"I hope no one is allergic to pollen," Auggie whispered to Annie as they waited to be dismissed.

"Oh, come on. It's going to be beautiful tomorrow."

He nodded once. "I'd assume that's what they're going for."

"Well, that generally is the plan at a wedding."

"Yeah, but we did it for so much less money."

She elbowed his side. "Let them do what they want to do."

"Okay, but thanks for not making me do all of this."

"I didn't want it either, if you'll recall."

"Do you think we can get out of here?"

"Yes. We can go out front and wait for a van. They may have already started running to the restaurant."

They were pleasantly surprised to find Rhett, Ruth, Troy, and Leah had the same idea. The six of them piled into the first van. Ruth's sister Loren and Leah's sister Noelle had the little ones back at the lake house. Maeve and Helena had made the cut, but Althea stayed back with Cole and Callista and the sitters.

"Don't even think about feeling guilty," Leah warned Ruth as they slid into their seats. "He's fine, and we're going to have a great night."

Ruth smiled. "I'm over it. He's already asleep. Loren just texted me."

"Good."

Troy turned from the passenger seat to address Auggie and Rhett. "Hey, I'm glad you guys came today even though you weren't playing. We haven't been all together for so long. And with Dad and the boys, it was a good day."

"It was. Max is so happy. That's a welcome change," Rhett added.

"Definitely," Auggie agreed. "I really like Sam. We spent a great weekend with them in Palm Springs. He's a really interesting guy."

"And you two." Rhett pushed. "What's your plan now that you have that big house?"

Auggie felt Annie's hand on his arm. He shrugged. "We're not big planners, you know?"

"Yeah," Annie added. "The most planning we've done in years was our vacation, and look how that turned out."

Troy jumped in here. "Bren's told us not to push you guys, but just in case it needs to be said, we'd all love to have you here, if that could ever happen."

"Listen, I appreciate it; we appreciate it. And to be completely honest with you, we've considered it," Auggie revealed. "There are still a lot of things going on where we are now, but we'll have a little more clarity in the next few months. We've both felt like we were floating for a while now."

"With the Smithsonian?" Rhett asked

Annie squeezed Auggie's hand as he decided how to answer. "No. Not exactly. But this isn't the time to discuss it. Like I said, Annie and I have some decisions we're working on, and we want you guys to know what's going on, but not now. Not this weekend. Okay?"

Troy spoke for the rest of the group. "Yeah. Auggie, Annie, we don't mean to pry or push. Ever. We're just saying that we miss you guys when you're not here."

Auggie nodded and Annie answered. "Thanks, Troy. Rhett. We miss you guys, too."

Mercifully, they arrived at the restaurant before any more conversation ensued. After they'd found their seats, Annie stole away to the bathroom. Dana followed. When they met at the mirror to wash their hands, Dana spoke.

"Is he okay, Annie?"

She'd been trying to figure that out herself for so long now. "Overall, I think so. It's been a weird year. I don't think he's felt this unsure of things since he's been back in DC. And he starts to get his feet under him again, and then something else comes along and he's blindsided." She let out a strangled laugh. "You know what I mean."

"You can't pad the corners of life for him, Sweetie."

"Why not? I don't want to be anywhere but beside him, so why can't I do that?"

"It's not how it works – life, love, Auggie, any of it."

"I know. But I would, Dana. I know he doesn't need me to, but I know you want to do the same for Brendan. Or you did at some point."

"It's a difficult balance," Dana agreed.

"I've been offered a job, actually two jobs. Of our three options, staying where we are is great for him, one of the job offers is great for me, and the second is great for me and sounds like it could be great for him. But either will be a change and somewhere new. The second is a place he knows, but still."

Color drained from Dana's face. "Istanbul?"

Annie's eyes widened. "How could you possibly know that?"

"It's the only other place he'd feel at home. I've known him a long time, Annie."

"We haven't decided anything. I keep thinking about what it could mean for him, what he could do there, and I almost forget what they've asked me to do and how it could define my career. Honestly, I just want to do whatever he's most comfortable with."

"Oh, Annie. You know that's not going to work. He won't sit still for that."

"I do. I really do." Annie's eyes welled with tears. "But sometimes I think _I'm_ not what's best for him."

Dana directed her to the bench across from the sinks and they sat. "Annie. You know that's not true."

"He wants a baby and a family like what all you guys have. He could give up the agency. The past two years have nearly done him in, yet I keep pushing. There's so much left for me there, and what they've offered is an amazing opportunity. But I don't want to do it without him, and I don't know if I can. I've only ever done what I do with him either backing me up or beside me. I don't want to be so selfish, but I want this, and I want him to want it, too."

"It's okay to have plans for your life, Annie. Just because you're married doesn't mean your own dreams don't matter anymore, but there has to be some degree of compromise. I know he loves you. And he _has_ been off for a while, but it's not your fault. You help keep him centered. I don't know where he'd be right now if you hadn't been there for him these past couple of years."

"I love him Dana. More than I thought I could love a person who isn't related to me. Maybe that's why I can't breathe when he's unhappy."

Dana smiled. "That's exactly why."

"What do I do? He knows it, and he's trying. He even went to see Ben Rosen."

"What did Ben say?"

"He suggested that Auggie get back in therapy, which he hates, but he said he would."

"But it has helped in the past. After the bar fight. After Parker. Things got better."

"Yeah. It did help. He was better. And that's about when we started dating."

"Other than Brendan and the boys, he's the most important person in my life, Annie. And I know how much he loves you, how much he wants a life with you. We haven't been as close in the past few years as we used to be, but I know him. And I knew the first time I saw the two of you together that you were the woman he'd been waiting for. And I know he's been struggling with who and what he wants to be now. He's lived this amazing life, but there's something to be said for family. When he barely spent time here, it was easier to go back to that life, I'm sure. But the closer you two get to us, the easier it is to imagine you here, too."

"I don't not want that. But I'm 32, and I don't want a baby now. I want to be a station chief." Annie realized it was the first time she'd admitted this to herself, much less out loud to someone with whom she should not be discussing any of this.

"Then you need to tell Auggie that. He'll understand. You're at a crossroads now, and one of you has to choose the direction. He might even be relieved if you make the choice."

"They need an answer by Monday. We said we'd discuss it Sunday when we get back. We're trying to be more mindful and present, especially when we're with family like this."

"That sounds like a noble pursuit, but I know Auggie, and I'm getting to know you, and I don't think that approach is going to put either of you at ease. Talk to him tonight."

"We have the fireworks to deal with tonight," Annie pointed out.

"Right." Dana sighed. She hadn't been around for the morning's conversation, but there had been other bad Independence Days over the past seven years. There was no easy answer with these two.

Annie wiped he eyes and stood to retouch her makeup in the mirror. "We'd better get back. They'll notice."

"Not my three," Dana chuckled with a shake of her head.

"Auggie will." She turned to Dana. "How bad is my face?"

"You look fine. Honestly. And if anyone says anything, it's a wedding. People cry at weddings."

They made their way back to the table, and Annie slipped in next to Auggie. A watered-down drink and her salad were waiting. His hand found her leg below the table.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just too much sun today."

"We can go if you want." He wasn't exactly sure how they would get away, but if she needed to go, he'd get her home.

"I had a little moment in the ladies, but I'm fine now."

"Annie! Seriously. We don't have to stay."

"I'm fine, Auggie. I want to stay. Unless you want to go."

"Not really."

"Okay. Then we're staying." She drained her drink. "Did you order for me?"

"Yeah. Crab stuffed shrimp."

"Perfect. Thanks." His hand hadn't moved from her knee. "I'm fine, Auggie."

"Okay." He didn't sound like he believed her, and he didn't move his hand.

Their food came and they ate, mostly in silence. Sam's mother and brother addressed the group, but neither Auggie nor Annie paid much attention. He leaned toward her. "Let's go outside."

"Sure." They stood and headed out to the deck overlooking the lake. Although the sunset was behind them, the entire sky glowed pink. "It's going to be dark soon."

"I'll be okay," he promised.

Her hand rested on his arm. "Are you sure?"

"We spend about 75% of our time together these days trying to make sure the other is okay." He sighed as he leaned back against the edge of the deck railing while she stood beside him facing the opposite way, looking out over the water. "It's a new development, and I don't like it."

"Something's just not right, Auggie. I don't know if it's something between us or something with work." She shrugged. "I don't feel like me; you don't seem like you. I don't know what it is, and I don't know how to fix it."

There was no use trying to deny what was so obviously true. "I know, Babe. So what are we going to do to figure it out?"

"I think we need to leave DC. We can come here or I can take one of the station jobs or maybe we need something completely different." She glanced at him in the twilight, longing for honesty and hoping it would lead to clarity. He held his face in a neutral expression. "I don't want to leave the agency yet. If you do, I understand, but I'm not ready." She watched him a bit longer as he stood there beside her, now seemingly lost in thought. She needed to know where he'd gone, because he clearly wasn't with her anymore. Her hand moved up his arm. "What are you thinking about? Where are you?"

"Barcelona," he whispered. He turned to face the water, still standing beside her against the rail.

"Oh, God. That was a day."

He nodded. "It was a big win."

"That's how you remember it? That's what got you all misty here?" Annie's recollection of their time pretending to be married had nothing to do with their mission.

"I heard the apprehension in your voice when I asked you about what Parker would say." He shook his head. "I thought…I don't know what I thought."

Annie found a spot on the distant horizon and tried to focus on it as she spoke. "I was in love with you, or I thought that I could be. The idea of you with her took my breath away."

He turned toward her. "You went to Simon."

She pivoted to face him, anger and the remembrance of the betrayal of that moment flooding back over her. "What did you expect me to do? I'd just approved Parker's engagement ring and pointed you in her direction."

"You'd already been with him."

"It was nothing at that point. It was work," she exclaimed. "I came back for you on the steps because I couldn't fathom a life without you in it."

"Even after you knew I was planning to propose?"

"You hadn't even read her in, Auggie."

"You knew I would fail?"

"I hoped you would." She sighed a laugh. "First and only time. I promise."

"What about OCA?"

Annie shrugged as she moved her hand back to the wooden rail. "I knew we'd figure it out if we had to. And I didn't know that I loved you then."

He finally posed the question Ben Rosen had asked him earlier in the day. "When did you know?"

"That night at Allen's after Istanbul."

He nodded. "That's what I thought."

She wanted to know, too. "What about you?"

"It took me a little longer. Somewhere around when everything went down with Simon."

She glanced around, making sure they could have this conversation here. They were alone. "Before or after Lena shot me?"

"Before. On the phone that day right before, I couldn't fathom a life without you in it, either. I thought you were going to leave with him."

"I almost did. But you stopped me. You and Danielle and the girls. Well, and Lena. I was walking out to tell him I was coming in just as she appeared out of nowhere. He pushed me out of the way, and she killed him. He saved me. For you. At least, that's what I came up with when I was in Russia."

"I wanted to be able to come there and get you myself."

"You did in Amsterdam. Shit, in Sweden, Danielle and I would have both been dead without you. And you got me out of Argentina, Pairs, and Berlin. My life fell apart without you in it. I don't want to go back out there without you beside me."

"Oh, Annie." Auggie collected her in his arms, pulling her close to him. How could he turn that down?

"Where do we go from here, Auggie?"

That moment of clarity they'd both been searching for suddenly arrived. "Istanbul."

She turned in his arms. "That's not what I mean. I'm not trying to persuade you to do something you think I want."

"You aren't. You haven't. I want this for you, but I want it for me, too. I've thinking a lot about finding a way to be able to work with my guys, or their successors, and if I can do more of that, or something like that, then I'm in."

"Auggie."

He stopped her as his finger traced the outline of her face. "I haven't stopped thinking about it since yesterday, sure, but I've been kicking around the idea for a few months now of how I could make it happen. It's what you want to do, and it might be just what I need right now."

His honesty deserved her reciprocity. "I don't want a baby, Auggie. Not yet."

"I know that." Auggie dropped his hand to her shoulder and ran it down her arm. "We've talked about this, and you got a new Mirena right after the wedding. If that doesn't say "no baby now," I'm not sure what does."

"But you're ready. You've been ready."

He shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you that I don't think about it sometimes, especially when we're here, but I'd rather have you."

"It doesn't mean that I don't want one eventually."

"I know that. Our time will come. Or it won't." He shrugged again. "There's no guarantee it would happen if we tried. We have a good thing with the two of us."

"But do we, Auggie? I can't help but think that I'm holding you back or that I've made you unhappy."

Auggie pulled her closer to him. "Oh Babe, no. Annie. Jesus. Have I made you think that? No, Sweetheart. You've kept me from falling apart." He rested his lips on the side of her head, kissing her lightly. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I thought I was past whatever this is." He dropped his hands to her sides, but she grabbed them, threading her fingers through his.

"What can I do, Auggie? How can I make this better for you?"

"Just be here while I'm figuring it out."

She raised his hands, bringing them between both of their chests. "You don't have to do whatever it is you have to do alone. That's one of the major perks of marriage, Hon."

"I don't want to pull you down."

"Wherever you are, that's where I am. That's what I'm telling you. If you're hurting, so am I. I can't help it. I don't want to help it. I want to help you."

He untangled his hands from hers, shaking his head. "I'm so sorry."

She placed her palm on his chest. "Just let me in."

He closed his eyes, his face awash in anguish. "I'll try. But you're right. Ben's right. I need help."

Annie exhaled with relief. "You'll see someone? And you'll really try to find someone who's a good match?"

He nodded. "Yeah. And I think we should go together, at least part of the time."

She rested her other hand on his chest. "Yeah? You'd want to do that?"

He smiled with a roll of the eyes. "I wouldn't go that far to say that I want to, but I don't what else to do."

Annie leaned against his shoulder. "We'll get through this, Auggie."

He nodded again. "And we need to tell my family. All of them."

"Yeah. Okay. Before we go on Sunday."

"Okay." Auggie fumbled in his pocket for the little pill bottle. "I'd better go ahead and get one of these in me before they start up."

"Or we could just go."

"No. I'm not going to run from some fireworks. I'll take the pills." He opened the flip top and dry-swallowed a tiny tablet. He'd barely gotten it down when the first explosion erupted behind him from a barge anchored just offshore. "Jesus!" He grabbed on to Annie's shoulders as he ducked. "I was not ready for that."

"I'm sorry. I didn't see it either." A burst of fire followed. She could feel Auggie shaking. "Let's go back in. There's a little sitting area just inside the door. It was clear when we came through on our way out."

Auggie was already pulling her back toward the restaurant. "Yeah. Let's go in. It's gonna take longer for this to work than the whole damn thing will last, and then I'll be stoned for the next six hours. Fuck!"

"Shhhh. There are people up by the door. And there's a van out here. Let's just go back to the house."

Rhett and Ruth were exiting the restaurant at about the same time and met the other couple by the van. "You guys heading out, too?"

"We had that idea. It's been a long day, and tomorrow will be just as bad," Annie covered as she directed a pale and trembling Auggie into the vehicle.

"I need to get back to the baby. He'll be up in about an hour," Ruth added as she slid in to the back seat. Auggie had already settled into the middle seat, leaning his head against the window.

"Is he okay?" Rhett asked as he and Annie prepared to climb in with their partners.

"No. He isn't."

Rhett squeezed her hand, his eyes more liquid than usual. Of all the brothers, even Max, Rhett knew the least about Auggie and his occasional ongoing struggles. He'd barely seen Auggie display anything other than confidence since he'd been about 10 years old. "Is there anything we can do?"

"He'll be better once we're on our way." Rhett nodded and Annie slid in beside Auggie. She placed her hand on his leg and he wrapped her arm through his. "Hey."

"I'm sorry."

"Shhhh. It's okay. We're on our way to the house. You'll be fine in just a little bit."

"I hate this."

She smoothed his hair, gently massaging his forehead and around to the right temple where his headaches usually started. "I know. And I hate it for you, but this is where I want to be. Okay? Right here with you." She freed her other hand and began massaging his neck, too.

"Thanks. That's good."

"Just try to relax. We'll be out of here in a minute."

Auggie nodded, squeezing his eyes closed against another barrage of pyrotechnics before the Xanax finally began to give him a little relief. He couldn't believe how completely dependent Independence Day made him feel these days, and that totally sucked.

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Auggie was asleep by the time they pulled into the driveway. Annie rubbed his shoulder.

"Honey, we're at the house."

"Oh. Okay."

"There are a few other houses around. There may be more firecrackers and things."

"Okay." She waited a second while he unbuckled his seat belt and started to slide across the seat. "Can we just go to bed?"

"Yeah. Of course." She took his hand in hers. "Come on."

They slipped mostly undetected into the house and stole up the steps to their room. "Your headphones are on the stand by your side of the bed. Do you want music?"

"Yeah." He stumbled toward the bathroom to wash up and brush his teeth. "Will you stay with me for a while," he asked as he let his shirt and then his pants fall to the floor just before he collapsed face first on the bed.

"Of course." She reached across him to grab his headphones. He plugged them into his phone and started the Mingus Spotify station. Once he was settled, she snuggled up beside him, her fingers lightly outlining the bold lines of the tattoo on his back. "Is that okay?"

"Mmmhhh," he sighed, sleep already coming again. "It's good. Thanks."

"Just relax."

"S'helping."

"Good." She stayed beside him until she was sure he was completely asleep. Once his breathing indicated that he was, she slipped off the bed and changed into his t-shirt and a pair of shorts before heading down to find the others. They had congregated on the back deck overlooking the water and were beginning to migrate into the yard where Troy was manning a growing blaze in the fire pit. A collection of wine and beer covered the kitchen counter. Annie grabbed a bottle of Magic Hat #9 on her way to join the rest of the family outside.

Sam approached her first. "How is he?"

"Asleep." She closed her eyes and exhaled a ragged breath. "He'll be okay," she assured, as much for her benefit as for his. Sam's arms wrapped around her. He started to speak but wasn't sure what he should say. "It's fine," Annie continued. "He wanted to stay. He hoped it would be different this time." She shrugged. "It wasn't."

"We feel horrible," Sam reiterated.

"Please don't. Don't let it ruin the weekend; he'd absolutely hate that."

Max joined them by the deck railing. "Annie. I…I…"

She stopped him with a firm shake of the head. "No. Max. Seriously. The last thing he wants is to make a big deal over this." She placed her hand on Max's much larger one. "It's just part of our life," she admitted with an all of a sudden tearful smile. "There are a lot more good days than bad."

"I'm glad he found you, Annie."

She wiped her eyes to allow a true, happy smile. "I'm glad he stopped moving long enough for me to find him, Max." She glanced from Max to Sam and back. "He'll be okay by the morning. Just give him a little space."

"Absolutely," Max agreed.

"Annie!" Leah called from the backyard where she and Ruth had pulled up a few chairs.

"I'm going to run down with the girls. You two had better get to bed before too late. Tomorrow's a big day!"

"Don't remind me," Max groaned with an exaggerated wag of his eyebrows. Sam rolled his eyes. Annie laughed as she jogged down the porch steps.

Leah jumped up and pulled Annie into a big hug. "We thought you'd never get here!"

"So you started without me, I see."

She shrugged, her eyes a little squinty. "I have to take advantage of moments when other people are caring for my children. At least until Maeve gets a little older," she added with a wink.

"Leah!" Ruth's shocked voice caused both of them to turn.

"Just wait. They aren't easy forever. Ask Dana. Eamon slept through the night right off the bat, but he got suspended three times in seventh grade. It all comes around."

"Leah!" Troy yelled from over by the fire. "Dial it down a little."

"Seriously!" Dana added as she approached, a sarcastic frown on her face. "He was framed at least two of those times."

"Yeah, but the third one was all him," Brendan clarified, joining the group.

"True," Dana agreed with a sage nod. "And that one was a doozy."

"What about Emmett?" Annie asked. "Any trouble for him?"

"You mean Auggie Junior?" quipped Brendan. "No way. He's much too concerned about his permanent record and all for any funny business."

"Didn't sleep through the night until he was eight, though," injected Dana. "Actually, I think I just stopped checking on him by then. He stayed in his room and read or something if he woke up." She turned to Ruth. "Leah's right. It all works itself out in the end. Just wait. Your days are coming."

Rhett arrived behind Ruth, adding his own thoughts to this conversation. "Oh, we'll be so old and senile by then we won't even know if he's coming or going. As long as he lets us sleep now, we're fine with whatever." The whole group erupted into laughter.

They settled into the mismatched selection of lawn chairs with Rhett choosing a seat to Annie's left. He glanced toward her, wanting to ask about Auggie but not wanting to pry, as was his usual manner. This closeness thing was new to him, too.

Annie leaned toward her oldest brother-in-law. "Thanks for worrying, Rhett. He's okay."

"I know he is, but God. He looked bad, Annie."

She shrugged. "Sometimes it's worse than others. He got caught a little off guard tonight, too."

"But he knew." The family had clearly discussed this while she was upstairs.

Annie nodded. "He did, but he hadn't taken anything yet. We were talking and lost track of where we were and what time it was."

Rhett raised an eyebrow. "Talking?"

"Yeah. There's just a lot going on. Never truly on vacation, you know?"

He nodded, as though he were considering that as an option but had decided against it. "Are you guys doing okay? I mean, even when you're totally ready for it, marriage can be tricky. Especially in the first year."

"We'll be alright. We're working through some things, but we're in it for good, and we're figuring it out."

"What Troy said earlier tonight, it's completely true. Ruth and I have loved really getting to know the two of you this past year."

"Auggie said the same thing this afternoon. I obviously agree."

"We wasted so much time, him and me, and all those year with Max. It seems so silly now." He shook his head. "I think about how Cole most likely won't have any siblings, and I can't believe we did that."

"We just have to make the most of these times together when we have them."

"But they're going to decrease, aren't they?"

"Rhett…"

"I've seen him like this before. He always gets antsy before he goes away again." He patted Annie's hand. "At least he won't be alone this time."

"He's never been alone before, Rhett. Not really."

"Yeah. I know he had the Army with him before, but now he has you."

"He's fine without me, Rhett. He has been for years."

"True. But he's better with you. I imagine tonight could have been worse."

Annie smiled as she brushed her hair behind her ears. "Thanks. I think I'm better with him, too. Actually, I know I am."

Ruth reached across Rhett. "We haven't had a chance to talk to him much since Saturday night. We so appreciate that he agreed to be Cole's godfather."

"He's taking the job very seriously, I assure you."

"We know. That's what we're counting on! Especially if he turns out anything like Eamon," Ruth added in a sarcastically scandalous whisper.

Annie laughed. "I don't think it could as bad as they're letting on; he's a good kid. And he's quite responsible these days with a job and a driver's license and everything."

Gwen and Jim had joined the company, too. Jim sat to Annie's left. "Are you still talking about Eamon?" he asked, an uncertain look on his face. "He stole all the dissection frogs to free them, but they'd already been preserved. He dumped them in the pool at the park that the school used for outdoor swim, thinking they'd just make it to the skimmers and get put outside the fence like usual. They had to drain the pool and clean it because of the frog chemicals. It was kind of a big deal."

Annie, Rhett and Ruth exchanged gasps. "How did I not know about this?" Annie sputtered.

"When Auggie stopped laughing, I swore him to secrecy," Dana chimed in from across the campfire. "Good to know he kept up his end of the bargain, unlike Papaw."

Jim raised his hands in surrender. "Nobody said anything about that to me. Besides, these three couldn't stay in the dark forever."

"Thanks, Dad," Rhett chuckled. "I think."

Brendan arrived from his beer run to the kitchen. "What?" he asked as soon as he saw Dana's expression.

"Your father just told the Eamon story."

"Geez, Dad. We tried to keep that one under wraps."

"I have a son who sleeps through the night as an infant. I feel like I need to know what I'm potentially in for," protested Rhett.

Brendan looked down at Dana as he handed out the beer bottles. "Well, he does have a point there."

Rhett swiveled in his seat. "You're awfully quiet on this topic, Troy. Troy?" He turned completely around to see where his brother had been standing. Troy and Leah were nowhere to be found.

"Think they're working on number five?" Brendan inquired of the group.

"It's barely been six weeks for us," exclaimed Ruth. "And Leah has to be exhausted!"

"Oh, Honey, this isn't their first rodeo," Gwen pointed out with a stifled laugh. "And I'm pretty sure wherever they've gotten to, sleep won't be high on their activity list."

The brothers and their spouses glanced around the campfire at each other and burst into laughter yet again. Annie glanced around. Everyone who remained had coupled up. She stood. Brendan offered her another beer, but she shook her head. "I'm going back up to the house."

Gwen stood. "I'll walk in with you." They headed into the kitchen where Annie stopped to deposit a few bottles in the recycle bin. Gwen began straightening up in the kitchen. Annie felt like Gwen wanted to talk, so she waited for her mother-in-law to start. "What do I need to do?"

Annie didn't quite meet Gwen's eyes. "I think we have things under control."

"That was not under control, Annie. The majority of this week has not been under control."

Annie looked up. "From the moment we got here, everyone was telling him how great he looked, how happy he seemed. So what changed?" She knew about what Gwen spoke, but she had to have Auggie's back.

"I have no idea. It was like a switch flipped, and he was completely different."

"Yeah." Annie felt herself having to concede that point. "That happens sometimes. It's been happening for a while."

"That's not ideal, Annie. Does he know that? Do you know that?"

"Yeah, we know it. We've recognized it." She felt her shoulders sag. "It's almost like he holds it all together for work, and then any other time is a total crapshoot."

"Before Ben, had he talked to anyone recently?"

Annie shook her head. "His PCP has been handling meds since Dr. Strake moved to Seattle back in the spring. Auggie was only seeing him about every year to six months or so, anyway, and there's been no ongoing therapy. I know it's not enough, but I can't make him go, Gwen."

"You realize his work will eventually suffer, don't you?"

"I do." Annie didn't want to think about that, but she had. It was her trump card. And she had already decided that if she felt it needed to be played, she would. But they weren't there yet. Or were they? "I'm not going to give him an ultimatum."

"I'm not suggesting that, Annie, but maybe from the inside, it's more difficult for the two of you or even the people he's interacting with on a daily basis to see what we're all seeing."

"A night like tonight is an outlier. He knew he might have trouble, and we're usually prepared." She dropped her head. "We were prepared, but we also had some things to talk about, and time got away from us. It was my fault, really."

"Annie. Listen to yourself. You're making excuses and covering for him. That's not you. And I can't imagine that he'd be too excited to realize that, either."

"I know. We know things aren't right. We were coming up with a plan when the fireworks started. Literal and then figurative."

Gwen nodded. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to put this on you. I'm worried about my son, and you're getting caught in the crossfire." Gwen walked to the sink, her back toward Annie at first. "I'm not good with things I can't control or fix, Annie." She turned. "And I know that I can't just bring him home and sort this out."

"Believe me, if I thought that was a realistic option, I'd send him, but we both know it's not." Annie came around to stand beside her mother-in-law. "It's going to take more than doctors and therapy and medicines. He's needed to make some life decisions; we've need to make some life decisions. And I think we have. And we'd like to let you guys in on that, but not now. He wants Max and Sam to have their day. Auggie's had plenty of days be about him, and he does not want to detract from what they deserve."

"No. He wouldn't. And he won't," Gwen promised.

"Thank you. He wants to discuss things with you, with everyone, and we will before we go."

"He doesn't, you don't...You two don't owe us any explanations, Annie."

Annie felt Gwen backtracking, but Auggie was sure that he wanted them to know. "He wants to be open with everyone. We both do."

"Thank you."

Annie nodded. "I'm going up with him. I'll see you in the morning."

Auggie's eyes were open when Annie opened the door, although he was lying on his side the bed with headphones in place. She climbed onto the bed, and he turned toward her.

"Hey," he blinked languidly as he stopped the music. "Where'd you go?"

"Outside."

"Everybody else out there?"

"Mmmhmm. But everyone was coupled up, so I missed you."

"Sorry."

She scooted closer to him, her hand resting on his face. "Hey, no. Stop apologizing to me."

"They all saw tonight, though, huh?" He rolled his eyes as he rolled away from her. "That's great."

"Rhett and Ruth, and your mom for sure. Dana and Brendan already knew, so did Max and Sam. Troy and Leah disappeared. There were passing rumors of the making of a fifth child."

Auggie managed to smile at that thought before propping himself up on a pillow beside her. "So what did my mom say?"

"She's worried."

"Did she freak out on you?"

Annie rested against his chest; his arms wrapped around her. "A little."

Auggie nodded once, a long dramatic motion. "She's nothing if not predictable."

"She loves you."

"I know. I just wish she could show it a little differently."

Annie's fingertips traced the edges of his abdominal muscles. "I'm tough."

He flexed against her touch. "I know. I'm glad for that. She'll apologize tomorrow."

"She already did." Annie inched toward her side of the bed. "Let me get undressed and wash my face and I'll be right back."

Auggie nestled back against his pillow. "I'm actually kind of glad I took the Xanax. I think I've sufficiently screwed up my routine." Sleep wasn't always easy for him.

"You have been napping during the day quite a bit this week. I didn't say anything because I don't want to nag." She admitted as she removed her makeup and tugged his t-shirt over her head.

"Well, I might need you to start nagging a little."

Annie brushed her teeth before hopping back in with him. "You want the headphones back?"

"Um, no," he announced as she settled in his arms. "This is good for now."

"For now?" Annie squeaked, slapping playfully at his arm.

Auggie smiled. "For tonight I mean."

"That phrasing isn't much better."

"I'm on drugs. Don't count on anything that I say right now."

"Nothing?"

"Well, I love you. You can count on that."

Annie kissed the inside of his elbow where his arms crossed her body. "I definitely will."

TBC


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Hey," Auggie nudged Annie. "I can't remember if I reset my watch or not, and I can't find my phone. What time is it?"

She rolled toward the nightstand on her side of the bed to retrieve her phone. "Seven sixteen. And your phone is with mine."

"Oh. Okay." His finger skimmed the watch face. "And this does not say that."

"Are you guys golfing again this morning?"

"No. Max wants to go out on the boat instead."

"What time?"

"Nine, ten. Something like that."

"Think he's nervous?"

"I was."

"Yeah?"

Auggie nodded. "Mmm hmm."

"Did you have second thoughts?"

"Not exactly; I just had a lot of feelings."

Annie snickered. "God forbid."

He elbowed her playfully. "I know how that sounds. What about you?"

"I wasn't nervous. Excited, anxious, yes, but not nervous."

"My mom will be relieved," Auggie revealed as he settled back against the headboard.

"Yeah, all five Anderson boys officially off the market. What will northeast Illinois do for man candy?"

Auggie chuckled. "Considering Max and I are the only ones left under 40, I'd say pretty much what they've been doing for the past 15 years."

"You know the sexiest age for a man is 42, right?"

Auggie turned toward Annie, his chin resting on his fist, a questioning look on his face. "I did not know that. And what's that based on, exactly?"

"Me thinking that 42-year-old men are hot."

Auggie's eyebrows shot up "So Troy?"

"Is hot, but that doesn't have much to do with his age. But think about it: Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair, Brad Pitt in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Daniel Craig in Skyfall, well he was 43, but I could go on and on."

"And on and on, huh?"

"Yeah. So look on the bright side, we've got 5 good years, at least."

"At least." Auggie echoed with a smile.

"Exactly." Annie pulled his hand toward her. "What are you going to do until the boating trip?"

"I have to give a toast. Max asked yesterday morning."

"Have you come up with anything yet?"

"I have some thoughts. But there will be about 10 years missing. Maybe Rhett should do it instead."

Annie feathered her fingertips up the entire length of Auggie's arm. "He asked you. The two of you have spent a lot of time together recently, and you also know Sam quite well."

"That's true. And it was Sam who brought us all back together."

"It was."

Auggie massaged his right temple as he rolled his shoulders. "Max is struggling with some stuff. I don't think he expected that; he thought he made it through clean."

Annie reached to her side, rubbing the tension from his shoulders and the base of his skull, trying to help him avoid another headache. "What'd you tell him?"

"That he should probably talk to someone," he sighed, attempting to relax his jaw he now realized he was clenching.

She placed her hand on his cheek before kissing his lips. "Novel idea, Babe."

He felt his upper body beginning to relax. "Isn't it though?"

Annie kept her hands in contact with his body. "They'll want us in Turkey by the end of the year."

Auggie nodded. He'd been working out some of the timing in his own head. "We can do that. We'll need to figure out to do with the house, decide if we want to rent it or whatever. I think the Agency can help us with that. If not, I'm sure Joan or Arthur knows someone."

"I don't want that to get in the way of something you need here."

He sighed. "I'll Skype or whatever if I can't find someone there, but I'm sure I'll be able to."

"Yeah. I'm sure." She didn't sound terribly convinced of any of that.

Auggie sighed again as he held out his hand for her. "I'm going with you, okay? As usual, I need you to tell me when I'm being ridiculous and letting my imagination run wild. But that's why we're in this together, right? I'm not flaking on you, and you're not letting me."

Annie threaded her arm through his and scooted herself a little closer to him. "I know that. And I'm glad you're remembering that you don't have to do any of this alone."

"I still forget sometimes, though," he nodded in agreement. "So just keep reminding me."

"I will. Rhett says the first year is the hardest."

"Oh yeah? How long do we have until we're done with that?"

"About 9 months."

"Excellent," Auggie groaned.

A knock on the door interrupted them. "Auggie?" Max called from the other side of the door. Annie jumped up to answer, tugging on a pair of shorts as she moved to unlock the door.

"Hey, Max."

"Hi Annie. Sorry to knock so early, but I was hoping to steal Auggie for a bit."

"Sure. Will he need a shirt?"

Max glanced around the door to see his brother sitting in bed. "Yeah. And shoes and all that, Aug. Okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be down in a minute, Max."

"Great. See you there." He winked as he disappeared into the hallway. "Thanks, Annie."

Annie closed the door and turned to see Auggie climbing out of the bed. He crossed around to the bathroom to brush his teeth. "What do you think that's all about?"

"I don't know. Guess you'll have to go down and find out." She dug in his bag and joined him in the bathroom, placing a tablet in his hand. "But take that first."

Auggie swallowed the pill to combat any further headache before he finished washing up. Afterwards, he dressed quickly, grabbing his phone and cane on the way out the door. He stepped into the hall, nearly running into a swift-moving and gravely-voiced Troy.

"Hey. What's all this about?" the bigger man inquired.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"You want a guide?" Troy tapped the back of his hand.

"Thanks." Auggie took Troy's elbow, marveling a little in how at-ease his brother seemed with this. That was new.

"Were you guys awake?"

"Yeah, for a little bit. Were you?"

"No. Leah's sister stayed with the older three, and the baby actually slept. We were gonna sleep in past 8 for the first time in almost ten years," Troy grumbled.

Auggie laughed. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Maybe in another ten." They arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and Troy filled Auggie in. "It's Rhett, Bren, Max and us."

"Oh."

"Hey, guys." Max greeted his final two brothers as they joined the group. "Thanks for coming down."

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" Troy asked.

"I wanted some time with the five of us. I thought we could take the boat out for a bit. I have breakfast, coffee, and a couple of guys to crew it so we can sit back and relax."

"Sounds good to me," Rhett shrugged. "Guys?"

The others murmured their approval, and the five brothers set off for the dock. Once they settled into their places, the captain directed the boat into open water. When they anchored a little ways out, Max turned to his brothers.

"I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit, too." He shielded his eyes against the glare of the morning sun coming off the water. "Auggie and I have discussed a lot of stuff by now, but I need to tell you all how sorry I am for these past eight, ten years."

"Max," Rhett tried to interrupt.

"No, I think you all know that, but I have to say it. I know this just didn't affect Auggie and me. It changed all of our relationships, and I need you to know how much I regret that, how sorry I am for that."

Troy fidgeted beside Auggie. He realized he should probably stop his brother, but Auggie kind of wanted to hear Troy's thoughts.

"I'm not sure what we're supposed to say, Max. I guess I should just be happy that you're back and all that, but we needed you here. Auggie needed you here. He and Rhett are just starting to have a real relationship for the first time in their adult lives – and some of that's on you. He needed us all to be here when he came back. We didn't know what to do or say. You could have helped us."

Auggie exhaled softly, waiting for Max's response. "I know that; I understand that. I missed so much of the important stuff. I can't get those years back. I can only hope that you'll let me try to earn our relationships back."

"Auggie?" Troy threw it over to him.

"We've said a lot of what we need to say, Troy. I appreciate your input and your feelings, but I can't hold onto this, even though it hurt. Or maybe because it hurt so much. I don't know. But Max and I have worked through this. It's one more thing that I can't change, but I also can't let it control me."

"So you're over it?" Troy pressed.

Auggie shrugged. "Maybe not all the time, but I'm trying my best to be on top of it, at least."

Troy sought the backup of the others. "Brendan? Rhett?"

Brendan spoke next. "I think I know how you're feeling, Troy, but I have to agree with Auggie here. We don't gain anything by holding onto those old disappointments. We can't change what's happened between us. We only have the time that we have. I don't want to miss any more of that by rehashing the past again and again."

Troy fidgeted again. "Rhett?"

"I had inside information about both situations. Maybe that let me give a little bit in both directions, but no. I can't see any gain in continued animosity."

"Auggie? Am I the only one? Is this just me?"

"You're in a different place, Troy. We're all coming from a different angle. You have to work through things the way that works for you. None of us can tell you exactly how to do that. But if it helps to know that I'm okay, then let me tell you that I am," Auggie assured.

"Max?" Troy volleyed it back.

"I'm not totally okay with it, but that doesn't give me back the last ten years of my life, either. I wasn't here with you guys when I needed to be. I can't ever change that reality, and I'm still probably not at peace with that. I might not ever be because that was a dickbag move, no matter what was going on with me. I even went to DC to see Auggie right when I got back, but I couldn't go through with meeting him. And I regret that every day."

"The text?" Auggie had kept an audio version of his brother's words for years afterward, but he hadn't realized how close in proximity they'd been that day.

"Yeah. And then there were another six years' worth of days that I regret. And my motives for even seeking Auggie out last year were totally selfish, but it got me to him." Max shrugged. "I don't have good answers or reasons, Troy. And I don't think that any answer or reason could be good enough. I have to live with that. We have to live with that. And I'm so sorry for that."

Rhett stood beside a shaken Max. "We all know that. Right, Troy?"

Troy sighed. "Yeah. I get that there was more going on than what we saw on the surface, but we would have been there for you, too, Max. You didn't have to be alone, either."

Auggie marveled in Troy's insight into the situation. He rested his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Troy's right, Max. We have pretty well established that we want to have real relationships with one another, but that means we have to let each other in, especially when we're struggling." He tried to prepare himself for the first real moment of openness shared with his brothers in almost 20 years.

But before he could go any further, Brendan spoke up. "Dana and I are having trouble. I didn't want to bother you all; I know you all have your own stuff going on, but I should have said something before now."

Troy and Rhett passed pained glances. Rhett fielded this. "We've been so wrapped up in our own things here. I didn't know. I wouldn't have known."

Troy nodded his agreement. "Us too. Shit Bren. What's going on?"

"She's been living at her mother's for about a month. She's agreed to come back home and we've actually started counseling this week, but we got lost. I got lost."

Max sat beside Brendan. "She's willing to talk. That's good. That's positive."

"I'm not innocent in this. This is my fault," he confessed.

Rhett and Max claimed seats at his point as well. "Is there anything we can do?" Rhett inquired.

"Not at the moment, but it felt weird not to tell you all. I'm not sure why I didn't, maybe because I was so ashamed."

An uneasy silence fell over the brothers until Troy spoke. "Jesus, Brendan. I think we're all just a little shocked. I mean, you guys have been together forever."

"I think we got complacent. I knew what I was doing, but I couldn't believe it was happening, it was like it wasn't me. But it was." He shook his head. "So happy wedding, Max."

They all managed at least a chuckle at the attempt at humor. "Yeah. Thanks, guys. And Auggie looks like he ate the canary. You ready to spill whatever it is?"

Auggie nodded. He'd been running this over in his head, and this wasn't exactly the intro he'd planned, but he was good on the fly. "Are we alone?"

Max glanced around them. "Yeah. Captain's up at the bow."

"Yeah. Okay. Hm. Where to start…" he took a deep breath. "Well, Annie and I are seriously considering a move to Istanbul this winter. For work." He thought about leaving it there but knew that wasn't what he and Annie had agreed to. "And we don't work for the Smithsonian." He knew that Troy and Rhett might need a moment for that to sink in. Max and Brendan already knew the rest of the story.

"What does that mean?" Troy asked.

"We're CIA operatives."

"Auggie," Brendan prodded him to say the actual word.

"We're covert. Spies."

"How?" Troy sputtered. "That's not what I mean, Auggie, just how does that work?"

"I don't do field work anymore. Well, not much." He sighed. "I do other stuff now."

Rhett found his voice. "Is that safe?"

"Field work? Not always."

"No. Turkey."

Auggie waved him off. "We'll both have desk jobs. We'll be fine. We always are." His brothers remain silent. "Well, within reason."

"And you guys know about this?" Troy addressed Max and Brendan, desperation painting the edges of his voice.

Auggie answered instead. "To some extent, yeah. Brendan's known the basics for a while, Max just recently."

"I needed Auggie's help with one of Sam's assignments," Max explained.

"And that's ultimately what got us back together," Auggie added. "It's my discretion as to whether or not I read-in those close to me, but the fact that I'm covert means that no one else can know. My life and those of my colleagues depends on it. I didn't want to put that on you guys if I didn't have to."

"Does Annie's sister know?" Rhett posed.

"She does, but Annie didn't have the chance to tell her on the terms she would have liked to, and that caused a rift between them for a while. I wanted to try to avoid that with us."

"Do Mom and Dad know?" Troy inquired.

"Not explicitly. Mom's made some remarks that seem like she's figured things out for the most part, but we haven't told them yet. We plan to before we leave."

"So when would you have to make a decision about this job," Brendan wanted to know.

"Monday. Unless something happens on their end between now and then, we're taking it."

"Wow." Max exhaled. "Do you know for how long?"

Auggie shook his head. "I don't. Annie will be working out of the consulate, and I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing, but I've worked in the region before in various capacities. I know the city well, maybe even better than I do DC."

More questions came now as his brothers began to consider what Auggie had just told them. Troy wanted to visit while Rhett seemed quite concerned about the export of rugs and antique furniture. Auggie promised that they could visit and that he would investigate the rest. They concluded the trip with breakfast and second and third cups of coffee before heading back to the dock.

As they disembarked, Rhett asked Auggie to walk with him for a moment. Auggie agreed and fell into step beside his brother. True to form, Rhett traversed the yard in silence. Auggie spoke first.

"I should have told you about this before the baptism. I realize that now."

"No. Of course not. One thing has nothing to do with the other, and that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, anyway."

Auggie nodded but finished his thought. "We're thinking it will be three or four years, but we won't know for a while."

"Then that will give all of us plenty of time to visit."

Auggie nodded again. "Annie was most concerned about how you'd take this news. She felt like she'd deceived you more than anyone else."

"It's not deception; it's your job."

"It still feels like lying when it's family. We've both told ourselves that it's for everyone's good. And even though we have to pretty much all the time, we don't want to lie, especially when we don't have to."

"I know that, Auggie. I know you're doing what you have to do to be safe."

"I like what we've been building here, Rhett. I don't want to lose that."

"We won't. We'll make sure that we don't."

Auggie stopped, his hand tightening just a bit on his brother's arm. "It's almost cliché, but I forget to reach out sometimes because I may not realize you're there. I get wrapped up in my own world, and it's easy to forget there are people around me. Annie's helped with that, for sure, but I'm still me. And I don't always reach out when I need help."

"That must be a difficult adjustment," Rhett agreed.

Auggie dropped his hands to his sides. "Yeah. And I'm still adjusting."

Rhett laughed for a moment before he stopped, placing his hand back on Auggie's arm. "Last night was worrisome, Aug."

The younger man dropped his head. "I know. I'm working on that, too, but things have been a little worse lately than usual."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"I wish there were. God." Auggie blew out a big breath. "Maybe keep an eye on Max. Separating isn't easy, and he thought he was okay at first, but it hits everyone at different times and in different ways. He gave them 20 years of his life; that's not nothing."

"Okay. I'll do that. We'll do that." Rhett ran his hand through the greying tufts of hair along his temples. "Nobody knew about Brendan and Dana. We've been busy, but that's not an excuse. We have to do better."

"I'm as guilty as anyone. Maybe the most. We haven't been talking as much lately. We go through quiet spurts – usually on my end, but looking back, it was definitely on their side this time."

"That's what I'm saying. We need to look out for each other."

"I'm not such a great lookout, Rhett."

"You know what I mean."

"I mean that, too. I get a little self-absorbed."

"I think we're all aware of that, but this is important. Mom and Dad won't be here forever." Auggie started to protest this, but Rhett put a hand back on his arm to silence him. "I know you don't want to hear that, but it's true. We have to think about how we want the family to function when it's just us, and we need to lay that groundwork now."

"That sounds reasonable. What can we do?"

"Check in, be available when you can be, but plan to be available."

"Okay." He really was willing to try.

"And remember that we're all here for you and Annie if you need it. Marriage can take work at times, and sometimes it's nice to have someone on the outside to give an opinion or advice. Or not. I'm just saying that we're all here if either of you needs that."

"Thanks. I appreciate that. I'm sure Annie does, too."

"My first feeling back there was to feel deceived and hurt, but I don't, not really. I understand that you both do what you do to keep each other, and all of us, safe. And if she's as good as her job as she was at convincing me she was an antiquities acquisition dealer, then you need her doing what she's doing."

Auggie smiled. "She is. Believe me."

"And I have a feeling that's going to be the extent of our discussion about your work."

"It is. Believe me." The brothers shared a laugh before Auggie continued. "We're learning a lot about each other, even now."

"Funny how that happens, huh?"

"Yeah. It is."

"But thanks. If I need some marriage counseling, I'll know who to call."

"You're excited about this move."

"I am. I feel more hopeful about it than I have about anything in a long time."

"That's great. I honestly hope it's everything you want it to be."

"Yeah. I'm almost afraid that I want it too much, and like most everything else, that it will be just a little bit of a letdown."

"That happens just anyway, though. You remember that, right? That's not a blind thing. That's a building something up in your mind or glorifying your past far beyond reality thing. We all do that."

"Oh. Right. Really?"

"Yeah. All of our experiences are colored by our memories and expectations and things very rarely if ever measure up. Have you been doing that, painting a perfect picture and then bumming out when you can't see it?"

"Shit. Maybe? I mean, I feel like it's more complicated than that, though."

"It might be, but please don't fall into that trap. That's a short trip to anhedonia and depression. Nothing could every make you happy because nothing will ever be as good as you imagine it."

"No. I guess not." Auggie shook his head. "Probably could have saved the VA some money this week if I'd talked to you first."

"They didn't put you on a list for an appointment?"

"I've fared a little better than that, thankfully."

"True."

"I'm gonna see if Annie wants to run."

"I'd better get in with the baby so Ruth can get ready."

"Thanks, Rhett."

"I'm your big brother, Auggie. This is the stuff I'm supposed to do."

"Just figuring that out?"

"Maybe. And I'm sorry about that."

"I think if we've learned anything about each other over the years it's that we're all still works in progress. You know?"

"I do. Go write your toast."

"You know about that, too?"

"Max wanted to know if you'd want to do it. I told him it didn't really matter if you did it or not. It's his wedding and we have to do what he says."

"That's a one-time only deal. He gets that, right?" Auggie decided with a chuckle.

"I think he does, but you still have to give a toast."

"Yes I do. And I still have very little idea about what I'm going to say."

"Just speak from the heart."

Auggie rolled his eyes. "You and Annie need to stop hanging out."

Rhett placed his hand back on his brother's shoulder as the approached the front door. "See you in a bit."

"Yeah."

Auggie made his way up the steps and knocked on their door. Annie opened a few seconds later and pulled him inside, directing his hand to the inside of her silky robe as she pulled him back toward the bed.

"I need to write my toast," he protested rather lamely.

"Not right now," Annie revealed with a quick nip against his neck.

Auggie's hands slid to her hips and he followed her into the room. "Yeah, okay." He'd get to that later.

TBC


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thanks so much for continuing to read and review. We're nearly to the end of this one, I think. Maybe 2 more?

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Chapter 18

"Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today…"

Annie slid her hand under Auggie's where it rested on her thigh. "Ah, there it is," she whispered.

"This is very them; what we did was very us," he pointed out, reminding her of their conversation the night before.

"It was. And we should stop talking during the ceremony."

"We should," he agreed.

They sat among the flowers until the officiant pronounced Max and Sam married. As they stood hand-in-hand waiting for their row to be dismissed, Auggie fidgeted.

Annie leaned against his chest. "It's almost time. You ready?"

"At least I don't have to keep up with note cards."

Annie squeezed his fingers. "You'll be great."

"I don't usually talk in font of people. If you'll recall, I definitely pulled the plug on the last opportunity for public speaking," he reminded her, thinking back on his day as the head of OCA.

"That didn't happen for completely different reasons. But if you do get nervous, just picture everyone in their underwear."

"Probably not helpful, Walker."

"Nope. Probably not. Just picture me in my underwear."

"That might help."

She tugged on his hand. "We're on the move."

"Lead the way."

"I can do that."

They found their seats at a table with Troy and Leah, Sam's brother Warren and his date, and Jeff Clarke and the brunette accompanying him. After introductions and greetings, Auggie settled in his chair to run through his remarks as Annie mingled. Usually he made a fairly decent effort to connect with people at these types of events, but today the speech occupied his time. Annie plopped a beer bottle beside his hand as she draped herself over his shoulder.

"Thought this might help," she offered as she sat beside him.

"Thanks."

"It's going to be great, though. You know that, right?"

"I know I'll be glad when it's done." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "How's the party? Sorry I haven't been much of a reveler so far."

"You will as soon as you've toasted, but it looks like it's going to be a good time. Leah is enjoying her childless evening."

"Already?"

"Yes. She and Troy are having a blast."

Auggie grinned. "Good for them."

"Yeah."

He moved his hand across the tabletop and placed it on top of hers. "I'll give you my undivided attention once this is over."

"That sounds lovely, but I don't believe you."

"We'll dance."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely."

Annie kissed him again before she stood. "Do you need anything else?"

"I'm all set. Any idea when all of this is going to happen?"

She glanced toward the entrance to the ballroom. A crowd was gathering. "Soon, I think. It looks like they're about ready to make the grand entrance." Instead of rejoining the others around the hors d'oeuvres on the other side of the room, Annie slid back into her chair beside him. "I think you'll be up in just a few minutes."

One of the event staff approached them with a microphone in hand. "Mr. Anderson?"

"I'm one of many."

"Auggie?" he verified.

"Yep. I'm that one."

"Here's your mic. The delay when you turn it on is about a second. The switch is on the bottom, only thing you can flip."

Auggie extended his hand, and the younger man deposited the cylinder in it. "Thanks." He turned slightly toward Annie as he rolled the mic in his fingers, finding the switch easily. "Which way do I need to face?"

"The head table is to your left, so if you angle just a little toward me, you'll be open to them and to the rest of the room."

"Okay." He alternated wiping each of his hands on his pants. "I shouldn't be this nervous."

She glanced over her shoulder. "This is a big room. I would be nervous. I'm a little nervous for you."

"Thanks."

"I'm trying to be helpful."

He rolled his eyes but didn't get a chance to answer as the music changed and an announcement beckoned the partygoers back to their seats to welcome the newlyweds. Once the din died down, the master of ceremonies announced the toasting portion of the evening. Auggie's name was the first called.

He stood, Annie maneuvered around to his left a bit. He placed his left hand on her shoulder and held the microphone to his mouth with his right. Her fingers curled around his wrist with a little squeeze of support.

"Max, I was a little surprised that you wanted me to speak today, but I'm glad that you asked, even though standing up here in front all of you folks isn't exactly my idea of a good time." The audience laughed, and Auggie took a deep breath. "For those of you who knew us growing up, you'll probably remember that being the two youngest and the closest in age of the Anderson clan meant that Max and I were a bit competitive. And to say 'a bit' is a bit of an understatement. And because we had the same goals and we thought, or maybe I thought, that we needed to push one another, and really all we succeeded in doing was pushing each other away. And because of that along with a whole host of other circumstances through the years, we've missed out on a lot of time in each other's lives.

"But thanks to Sam, Max and I reconnected, and I've spent the last year getting to know my brother again. I've had the opportunity to experience the love that they share, and I realized I wanted that for him and that I wanted it for myself, too. So I found that in my adult life, just like throughout so many times in our childhood, whether you knew it or not, Max, I'm still looking up to you and trying to follow your example. And today, on this special day, surrounded by the people who love you both the most, I ask that we'd all raise a glass to Max and Sam, their health, their happiness, and what brought us here today, their love." Annie tapped the back of his left hand with a glass of champagne; he paused to take it and raised it to the crowd. "To Max and Sam."

The group echoed, "To Max and Sam," followed by the clinking of glasses. Annie clinked his and he drank. He swallowed and exhaled with relief before he switched off the mic and reclaimed his seat. Sam's brother Warren and then two of the couple's mutual friends spoke. Auggie listened, and even found himself laughing at a story about Sam's first bicycle. Annie leaned against him between the second and third toast.

"It was great."

"It's over, and I didn't spill my drink."

"It was better than that."

Once the last friend finished, Max moved from his chair and knelt at Auggie's side. "Auggie. Thank you. That was really beautiful."

"I'm just glad we both made it to this point. And that we're all here together."

"I know. I am, too. And now that the toasting is over, you and Annie need to enjoy yourselves. Eat, drink, dance!"

He nodded. "Congratulations, Max. I'm really, really happy for you."

Max leaned his head against his brother's. "And now, let the wild rumpus start," he whispered.

Auggie chuckled. "You've waited your whole life to say that, huh?"

Max leaned back on his heels. "Pretty much."

"You have to get around to the other tables."

"I do." Max stood and Auggie joined him.

"We'll see you guys in the morning before we head out."

"Yeah." He pulled Auggie into a big hug. "Thanks again, Aug. I love you."

Auggie nodded, suddenly a bit choked up. Annie placed a hand on each brother's arm. "Mind if I cut in? They're playing our song."

"Absolutely," Max released Auggie and gave Annie's shoulders a squeeze. "If I don't get back around, I'll see you guys for brunch."

Annie slipped her hand into Auggie's as they proceeded to the dance floor. Alicia Keys serenaded the room as they fell into step, Annie tight against his chest.

"This isn't our song." Auggie mused as "No One" played around them.

"It could be."

"Because we both searched the world before we found this?"

"Among other reasons." She swayed against him a moment before she spoke again. "It was a beautiful ceremony."

"It was. And they are very happy and very much in love."

"And you're still okay with leaving now, even when you've just begun to reconnect with Max and with Rhett?"

"I don't want to stay in DC, Annie. I want something more from my life and what's left of my career than sitting in an office at Langley, even if you are the person on the other end of the phone. That's what I'd always assumed my life would be like as a programmer, and I guess that's what I was expecting when I first made it to the Farm, because that just made sense with the limited skills I had. But once they turned me loose in the field, everything changed. You know what that's like; there is nothing in the world like having boots on the ground during a mission. You also know that coming back in has always been a compromise and something I couldn't completely control.

"I couldn't finish my career in the field, but I didn't come in to run a station or to become a director like the others in my class. And I'm thankful that they let me come back, and sometimes I think I've come to terms with it, but every small chance to get back out there, you've seen me jump, almost comically or foolishly at every opportunity. So now, they're offering me that life again, and even though I should be past it, I'm not.

"I get to find out if I can do it again. And maybe I can't, but I have to try. I need to know, and I don't think I can do anything else – at the Agency or otherwise – until I give this a shot. And maybe that's what I've needed all along."

Annie's hand caressed the side of his face. "Okay. Maybe I needed to hear you say that."

"Yeah?"

She nodded close against his chest before she spoke again. "We've both been on our own and made decisions for ourselves only for so many years. I don't know how to make a choice that affect you as much or more than it does me, especially if I'm not sure of your motivation. Do you understand how difficult that would be for me to do without this honest and decisive input from you?"

"I know. But it seems incredibly selfish to tell you that I really, really want this, when I'm not sure it's the best choice for you. And it's not the position or the area you expected. It's more dangerous for both of us. I don't know if I want to put you in a precarious situation because I think I'll be happier there, but I can't even know that. What if we get there and I'm a total bust?"

"You're not ever a total bust, Auggie. A partial bust a couple of times, but never a total bust."

He exhaled with a smile. "Figured me out by now, have you Walker?"

"Pretty much. And I couldn't go on this adventure with anyone else."

"I wholeheartedly agree," Auggie assured as the song came to an end.

The emcee took to the mic. "Folks, we're gonna keep things light and informal, but we are gonna give the newlyweds their moment in the spotlight. So let's welcome Sam and Max to the floor for their first dance as a married couple."

Annie directed Auggie to the edge of the dancing area as "Better Man" by James Morrison filled the room. Annie surveyed the crowd around them. Gwen dabbed at her eyes, sitting beside Jim across the floor from where Annie and Auggie stood. Auggie kept his hand protectively on the small of Annie's back, his fingers drumming along to the beat. After their song concluded, Max took the mic.

"We aren't the only newlyweds in the room. My brother and his bride Annie did the small, simple thing – none of this hoopla – but also no one introduced them over a PA system or played a song for them to dance in front of friends and family. And they didn't know we planned to do this, but Auggie's iTunes account is surprisingly and notoriously accessible, so I found the most played non-jazz song in his library and made the assumption that this is the one that means something to the two of them.

"So ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, my brother Auggie and his lovely wife Annie."

Troy gave the couple a gentle push back onto the dance floor as the horns crooned forth the first few notes of "You Are the Best Thing" by Ray LaMontagne.

"What do we do?" Annie murmured near his shoulder as she watched the room watching them.

Auggie's hips swayed against hers. "I guess we dance."

"There are so many people looking."

"Close your eyes."

"One of the perks?"

"Just about the only one." He moved in circles across the floor with her. "I want to go to Turkey with you, Annie. And then maybe we do something else, like get a house with a picket fence next to Troy's."

She leaned against his shoulder. "I don't think his HOA allows picket fences, but yeah, maybe something like that then."

Auggie exhaled deeply. "We have to tell Mom and Dad in the morning."

"Gwen suspects."

He nodded. "She always has. I've never been able to lie to her. I've told a lot of lies in my life, but never to her, not really about anything that mattered."

"Except the big one."

He shifted his hands on Annie's back as he shrugged a little. "We just don't ever talk about it. I know she knows and I don't try to deny it."

"She loves you and she wants you to be happy."

"And safe. I can't always promise her that, which is maybe what's held me back from coming completely clean with her."

"You will, and she'll understand. She already does."

"Yeah," he replied, letting the thought trail off.

Annie chose another conversation thread. "This first dance thing isn't so bad. I've almost forgotten that 200 people are watching us."

"Did you download this song?" he inquired.

"I did not, but it's catchy. Did you?"

"Nope. Must have been one of the guys."

"You really should change that password," she scolded playfully.

"I know, but then we might actually have had an idea of which song my brother would have us dance to at his wedding."

"That's true," Annie agreed with a little laugh close to his ear.

Auggie pulled her body a bit closer to his. "You are, you know?"

"I am what?"

"The best thing that's ever happened to me."

Annie smiled, her fingers twisting in his hair and pulling him toward her waiting lips. "I wholeheartedly agree."

TBC


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Here's a bit more. I felt like I had to post something to keep me going, as I got a little stuck. Enjoy!

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Chapter 19

They ate, they drank, they danced, and they sang. They passed an amazing night with the family as two members of the wedding. Annie and Auggie shared a van back to the lake house with Leah and Troy, the four of them singing Bon Jovi as the stumbled up the front walk. Auggie started toward the stairs, but Troy stopped him as his hand reached the banister.

"Come out to the beach for a little bit. The girls are with Leah's sister tonight, too. Let's spend this last night together, in case it is the last for a while."

Annie placed her hand on Auggie's, giving it a little squeeze.

"Yeah," he agreed. "That sounds like an excellent idea. Mind if I change first?"

"Nah. We're going up no. We'll meet you back down here in like 10 minutes."

The four of them mounted the steps and separated in the hall. Inside their door, Auggie's fingers ascended Annie's arm and found the zipper at the back of her dress. He worked it down and eased the straps off of her shoulders. He took a step forward so that his chest rested against her back. She pivoted in his arms. He continued to remove her clothes, their bodies abreast one another. Annie removed his already loosened tie and started on the shirt buttons. He released her long enough to guide her efforts and her hand to his trousers instead.

"We have to meet the others in 10, now 8 minutes."

"I can work fast."

She reached up to kiss his exposed neck. "Not now. Later. Let's go down with the others."

"Okay." Auggie shrugged out of his shirt and headed to the bathroom. "Will you grab my jeans?"

"Sure. You want a shirt, too?"

"That's probably preferable."

"I'm fine without you wearing one," Annie teased as she turned to the suitcases. She chose a pair of khaki shorts and one of Auggie's old Oxford button-downs for her and a dark V-neck tee to go with his jeans. She headed toward the bathroom where he was filling a water bottle.

"Here." She handed over his change of clothing, her hand lingering on his upper arm. "Take these and give me what's left of your suit."

He pulled off his socks before he stepped into the jeans.

"I just left everything in a corner. I think."

Annie collected the heap of clothing he had discarded and folded up his suit, shirt and tie. "We'll discuss your laundry habits later. But I want to go outside. Come on."

Auggie retrieved his cane from the dresser by the door. "Troy was right. This might be our last night together for a while."

Annie pulled her hair out of her face with the elastic around her wrist before she followed him toward the door. "We'll have them all out before we go, or we'll come back for a weekend. We'll figure it out." She leaned against his shoulder where she deposited the whisper of a kiss. "We always do."

"Yeah. We do."

They joined Leah and Troy in the kitchen. Leah sat on the counter as Troy stood between her legs, leaning against her. After years of marriage and four kids, they still clearly loved one another madly. Annie tightened her grip on Auggie's arm as they approached the other couple.

"Anyone else still awake?" Annie inquired.

"Maybe Mom. Her light was on when we came past the room, but I think everyone else is out." Troy stood to his full height and reached back to help Leah down from the counter. He motioned behind her. "Grab that lighter, Babe."

The foursome head out to the fire pit where Leah and Troy started a small blaze while Annie and Auggie settled into Adirondack chairs arranged in a semicircle around the fire. Finally, Troy and Leah took seats beside them once they were satisfied with the flames.

"It's been a good week," Troy offered.

"You've had uninterrupted time with your wife for the past two evenings. You would say that," Auggie pointed out.

"That is true." Leah laughed. "He's got you figured out completely, Baby."

Troy took a long drink of his beer and shrugged before he leaned forward to squeeze Auggie's shoulder. "I am an easy man to please."

"It was great to spend some time with the girls, though," added Annie. "They are growing so fast."

"Don't remind me! Callista tried to roll over earlier tonight." Leah shook her head in disbelief.

"It's the same with my sister's girls. It's crazy how much older they are every time I see them." Even in the moonlight, Leah watched her sister-in-law's face fall. "That's going to be the case with your girls, too, I guess."

Leah crawled across Troy and crouched in the sand beside Annie. "Hey! No, listen. We'll Skype and do everything we can to keep in touch. And we've been talking about taking the older girls to Europe at some point. We'll figure out ways to see each other while you're away."

Auggie nudged her. "She's right. We'll keep in touch."

Leah moved back to her chair next to Troy. "Does your sister know about any of this, Annie?"

"No. She doesn't. We didn't know about it ourselves until Thursday. I'd like to tell her in person, though."

"When are you going to talk to Mom and Dad?" Troy inquired.

"Tomorrow, I guess." Auggie reasoned. "It's not going to be a long conversation. We have to be back in DC for meetings on Monday."

Troy looked across to Annie and then to his brother. "Can we talk a little about last night, Aug?"

Auggie's fingers balled reflexively into fists. "You weren't supposed to see all of that."

"Yeah, but we did."

Auggie rolled his eyes. "And I've already heard about it from Max and then Rhett and now you. Oh, and Annie got an earful from Mom last night, too."

"So you're working on it?"

The younger man nodded. "I am. And I might take a while, and it might get a little ugly at times."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say here."

Auggie sat forward in his chair and angled himself toward Troy. "Nah, you always seem to, and it's always been at exactly the right time, but I'm good – or I will be."

"I felt I had to check."

"I appreciate that, T. I really do. I just hate that you guys worry about me. I'm fine. Annie makes sure of it."

"I'm going to miss you all over again," Troy sighed with a pointed look at Annie. "Both of you."

"That goes for both of us," Leah agreed.

Annie leaned back against Auggie's chest and stared up at the stars above them. "We're going to miss all of this and all of you."

The four of them set in relative silence for a bit longer until the fire burned low. Troy threw some sand on the coals to extinguish the embers, and they headed back inside. After more hugs in the kitchen, Troy and Leah escaped to their bedroom for their last night of freedom. Annie and Auggie drifted back onto the back porch.

"We should go to bed. We're going to have to make the rounds tomorrow, not to mention the conversation with my parents," Auggie pointed out.

Annie sighed against his chest. "So we tell them we need more time. I'd like to talk to Dani before everything is official. I feel like I owe her that, at least."

"What do you want to do?"

"I'll tell Joan that we'll take the positions in Turkey but that we need a few days to tie up loose ends before we come back."

"I have to…"

Her hand patted his chest. "No you don't. Nor do I."

He shook his head, a bit in disbelief. "I haven't ever missed this much work."

"And yet your professional status is not in any way diminished by having a personal life."

"Is that meant to imply that I'm getting back into Turkey because I'm married to you?"

Annie pulled back from him. "What? No. Of course not."

Auggie exhaled, shaking his head. "I know. I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that."

She stood in front of him, her hand moved from his chest to his cheek. "Listen. We have to be in this together. I'm not doing this without you."

"Are you doing it because of me?"

"Partly. I need to run a station. Berlin is obviously the best choice for me. Hell, even Chicago makes more sense for the two of us, but I want to do this with you, and you need this. We've already made our decision."

He leaned back against the porch railing. "But are you sure?"

"Are you?"

"Yes." His hands rested definitively on her shoulders. "Let's do it."

She wrapped her hands around his waist and her fingers inched up his back. He returned her embrace. "Okay. But right now, let's go to bed."

"Should you call Joan?"

"Not now. I'll text her in the morning."

"In that case, I'd like to take you to bed now, then."

Annie kissed his neck before she pulled him toward the door. "I thought you'd never ask."

TBC


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: I keep dragging this one on. But who doesn't love a good shower scene?

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Chapter 20

Annie woke first on the morning after the wedding. She stole downstairs just before sunrise to call Joan. The CIA's Director of Clandestine Services answered on the first ring.

"Annie. Is everything alright?"

"It is. I'm sorry to call so early."

"It's an hour later here than there, and Mac is a morning person. Which makes him Arthur's son before 7 am on most days. But what can I do for you?"

"We want Turkey."

"Excellent. We can put things in motion as soon as you get back."

"That's actually what I need a little help with. I'd like to tell Danielle in person, and we'd like a little more time with Auggie's family, if that's possible."

"Would two weeks be enough?"

"That would be amazing."

"Good. Just stay close to your phone. We may need some information from you as we get started here."

"Okay. Sure."

"Then we'll see you both on the 21st."

"Thanks so much, Joan."

Annie ended the call and came back inside. Gwen stood at the counter, searching for the coffee-making supplies.

"Annie. I didn't hear you. Is everything okay?"

"Good morning. Yes. Everything's fine. I needed to make a call and didn't want to wake Auggie. Plus, this view is unbelievable."

"It is beautiful here." Gwen finished with the coffee pot. "Sit with me for a minute while this brews." They moved toward the porch as sunlight lapped the edge of the horizon. "I couldn't ever have hoped to have everyone here like this. There's no way an evening like last night would have been possible even a year ago. I can't bear to think that Max would have done this without us, but he would have."

"Auggie is so glad to have Max back in his life and that he's back in all of your lives."

"These boys were so much of my life for so long, and then they were grown and gone. Having Max, and even Auggie, away from for so many years just…it was hard."

"I can't imagine. My sister and I had a falling out a couple of years ago. It was horrible, and it only lasted a few months."

Gwen stood to pour the coffee. "I didn't know that."

"Thankfully we've worked through it, but before Auggie and were together, she was all I had."

"Family has a way of overcoming what seems insurmountable."

"I'm so lucky to get to be a part of yours."

Gwen returned to Annie's side and handed over a steaming cup with an approving nod. "You pull your weight."

Annie grinned. "Thanks." She sipped the hot liquid before she rose from her chair. "I'm going to go find your son. The one I'm married to, that is."

Gwen smiled back. "Yes. There are several, but that one suits you best."

When she arrived in their room, Auggie was still sleeping. She set her mug on the nightstand and climbed in the bed beside him. She snuggled up against his back. He rolled toward her.

"Morning?"

"It is."

"We have to talk to my parents. What time's the flight?"

She jumped up. "The flight! I need to cancel it."

"What?"

"I talked to Joan. She offered two more weeks to get things in order with family. I said we'd take it."

Auggie sat up. "Two weeks? I'd like to think that I'm more essential than to be gone for the better part of a month without anyone batting an eye."

She sat back on the bed beside him and placed her hand on his arm. "You realize they'll be doing everything without us in less than six months, don't you?"

"It's still weird."

"You know you're indispensable. To them and to me."

He leaned back against the pillows. "And you know I've fought for seven years to prove that."

Annie scooted toward him. "You have proven it, Babe. Probably within about seven minutes of walking back through the door."

"It took a little longer than that."

She kissed his cheek before resting her head on his shoulder. "Doubtful."

He wrapped his arm around Annie. "I know I said I don't want to die there, but it _is_ predictable. At least I know where the walls are."

"Dana says I'm not allowed to pad the corners of life for you."

"She would say that," he chuckled.

"Well, I'm relying on you to help me get the lay of the land."

"Turkey's a lot different than it was a few years ago. And the election in August could complicate things."

"Are any of your guys from the old days still in the region?"

"A couple. I check in from time to time. They're watching the political climate very closely." He sighed into Annie's hair. "I wish I could see the look on their faces when they hear I'll be the new contact."

"After Goliath and bringing in Khani, how could they be anything but ecstatic?"

He kissed her before he swung his feet over the edge of the bed. "Cancel the flight. I'm gonna grab some coffee."

"Do you want the rest of mine?"

"Nah. I also want to talk to my mom before everyone else is around."

"I'll be down after I'm done with the airline."

"Okay." He reached across and kissed her again. "I want to do this with you."

"I do, too."

Auggie had learned the lay of this land fairly well by now, but he still brought the cane as he made his way downstairs. Gwen had moved from the kitchen out onto the porch. She heard Auggie arrive in the kitchen and returned to meet him.

"Hey, baby." She squeezed his arm.

"Hi Mom." He reached down and kissed her cheek.

"Do you want coffee?"

"That would be great."

Gwen prepared his cup. "Then come out back with me."

"Sure." Auggie accepted the mug from his mother before abandoning the cane, taking her elbow and followed her out to the porch. They settled into seats and maintained silence for only a few moments before Gwen turned to Auggie.

"So, are you ready to tell me?"

"Without Dad?"

"You can do the official reveal with him and Annie like I'm sure you have planned for later, but this is me, Aug. Tell me how they got to you."

"At school. They recruited me there – just as an analyst. I thought they'd stick me in a basement in front of a computer, but once I got to the Farm it didn't work out like that." He shrugged with a shake of his head. "That's not what happened at all."

"You were good."

"Annie's better."

"Really?"

He shrugged again, this time with a little nod. "She's very good."

"You've lived this life since college without opening up to me. What we're doing right now has to mean something, and I'm almost afraid to ask what that is. But what's going on?"

"We're going to Turkey. I'm not exactly sure how long just yet, but likely it will be for a couple of years. I know I've been lots of places in the past and I didn't or couldn't tell you where or why, but things are a little more open with this one. And things are different since…"

"Since you reconnected fully with the family and found and married Annie? Yes. They are." Gwen reached across and squeezed his hand. "We'll miss you both so much."

"I don't know what I would have done without you after I got back."

"I don't know what I would have done without you. Period."

Auggie nodded. "I'm happy with her. This is a good opportunity for me."

"I know all of that has to be true, but I'll still miss you."

"I'm sorry for those lost years and the times I couldn't tell you what was going on in my life. There will still be times like that. I can't tell you everything or most things even, but I have Annie. I'm not out there alone – not that I ever was, but you know her."

"That does help. I know you can handle yourself, but I know that the two of you make an amazing team. It's obvious to anyone who sees the two of you together on the street; I can only imagine what it's like when the two of you are working together."

Auggie's tapped his pointer finger against the chair's arm. "This is next on our list. Home, family, kids, and all that. Just not yet."

"Take your time. Do the things you need to do. We'll be here."

"She really wants this," Auggie revealed, not sure why he'd said it as soon as he did. He knew his mom would jump on his choice of pronoun, and she did.

"Do you?"

"I want her. And I want her to be happy. And she wants to do this with me."

"Then you go."

"Then we go." He leaned forward in his seat. "I should go back up. We, um, enjoy the mornings." He blushed as he spoke. "Too much information."

Gwen patted her son's arm. "I'd be worried if you didn't."

"Right. But still, let's not talk about it."

"When's your flight?"

"Not sure. Annie just bought us a couple more weeks. We'll head out to her sister's at some point once they've had a chance to make a plan."

"You're welcome here indefinitely."

He stood. "Thanks, Mom."

"I'll pretend to be surprised at lunch with your dad."

"Please do."

Gwen stood beside him. "I need a refill."

"And I need a guide, so…"

She tapped his hand. "Win, win." They re-entered the kitchen and Gwen retrieved his cane. "Here's this."

"Thanks. I know our room fairly well, but I've been drinking a lot this weekend."

"Break a lamp!"

"Is that supposed to be funny?"

She shrugged, more for her benefit than his. "I tried."

"Not that hard."

She kissed his cheek. "See you later. And don't actually break a lamp. There's a security deposit."

* * *

Annie had just stepped under the flow of the shower as Auggie entered the room. Acting on the sound of the faucet and utilizing the element of surprise, he quickly undressed and slipped in behind her.

"I was hoping you'd do that," she crooned as she turned to kiss him. "The flight is canceled. We'll re-book when we know where we're going."

"Excellent," he murmured as his hands and lips grazed the angles of her body.

"How's your mom?"

He paused at the mention of his mother. "Read in."

"Seriously?"

"She just started talking, and it came out."

"You mean to tell me that you've undergone actual physical torture without giving up information before, yet when your mother says 'Do you work for the CIA?' you crack."

He ran a saturated strand of her hair through his fingers. "Pretty much. Yeah."

"We need to work on that, then."

"Looks like we do." She handed over her loofah. "She said she'd act surprised when my dad's around."

"Or maybe you could just tell your dad."

He scrubbed circles across Annie's back. "Or maybe I could just tell my dad. I guess if she knows that means he does, too."

"Probably."

"Do you think they're proud of me? That they think that I've made good choices? Or at least, the right choices," he mused as he dropped his hands to his sides and backed into the smooth stone of the wall.

"Is that what all this is about?"

He rolled his shoulders and sighed. "I don't know. Maybe. I don't want them to think I've thrown my life away."

Annie closed her eyes for a second, collecting her thoughts before she spoke, seeing as they had landed right back on this train of thought. She stepped toward him, placing her palm on his chest. "Oh, Auggie. They might have made different choices, but they respect the ones you've made."

His fingers encircled her wrist. "Because they love me or because they understand why I made them?"

"I don't think they need to understand all of them _because_ they love you." She pulled him toward her.

"I hope that's true." He stepped under the water with her. "That or some version thereof."

"I think we all ask ourselves these questions when we get to a turning point like where we are now. We look back at the things we wish we could change and try to readjust the trajectory of our next moves to try to prevent the same type of mistakes or not even mistakes, missteps." She took the loofah from his hands and replenished the soap suds before turning to wash him. "Did you do that after Iraq?"

"Sort of, but I didn't see that I had any choices except trying to get back."

"Maybe _that's_ it."

"Maybe there's not an 'it.' Maybe it's just me."

"I don't know Auggie, there's something to be said for the self-evaluation process, I think." She stopped. "Hell, I don't know. I'm not the best with coping with disappointment and questionable choices from my own past. So maybe don't listen to me. Listen to Ben Rosen."

"I never thought I'd be the type of person who needed everything to fit in a neat little box."

"You probably never thought you'd need this much order in your life."

"That is a valid statement."

Annie almost felt silly asking the question burning in her mind, but they'd danced around Auggie's satisfaction with his life and with her for months now. "Is this a version of your life you can live with? That you'll be okay with? I think that's the most important question, Auggie, because if it's not, there's still a lot out there for each of us without the other."

"And you've considered that."

She chose her tone carefully so as not to sound even the tiniest bit accusatory. "Don't insinuate that you haven't."

He moved closer to her so that their chests touched. "And your conclusion?"

"You know my conclusion. And in case you need me to say it, it's you. It's always you."

He shook his head, taking a step backward. "But it hasn't always been me."

"It has been since there was even a possibility of the two of us being together. I couldn't make you do something you didn't want to do, especially when you had something or someone else on your mind."

"Yeah, okay. We don't have to go back there."

"I'd rather not do that, either."

"I'm not the person I thought I would be."

She wove her fingers between his before squeezing his hand. "Neither am I, but isn't it still a moving target. I don't know who I'll eventually become, but I'm enjoying the ride. With you."

"Yeah, with you. That part is excellent. That's a given, but the rest of it, I still feel so, I don't even know the word I want to use. Adrift?" He rested his head back on hers as he reached over her shoulder to extinguish the flow of water. "I don't want to feel that way."

"And I'm at a loss at helping you with that."

He kissed her forehead. "I know. I'm sorry to keep coming back to this, and thank you for listening, even if there's nothing you can do."

She moved her hands up his arms. "Please don't stop talking to me. If you shut me out, I don't see how we'll make it."

"God. Yeah. And if the Brendan stuff isn't enough of a warning, I don't know what is."

Her hand cupped the side of his face. "I'll always be here to listen, even if you forget that I am, but I can't read your mind."

"And I'll keep reaching out to you, to Ben, to my brothers. I won't try to do this on my own."

She handed him a towel. "That's all I'm asking, because you don't have to."

He stepped out of the shower and onto the bathroom tile. "I guess that means I need to talk to my Dad."

TBC


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews. I finally watched the end of the final season (I'd been stuck on the Paris episode for over a year). I have to admit (and I have to some of you), that I kind of liked their end, too. For now, though, here's a little more of my version of how things might have gone. And I absolutely loved the idea of Auggie, Teo and the baby hanging out together. That should definitely happen. Auggie's a baby expert now, anyway!

* * *

Chapter 21

The family met the newlyweds for brunch before Sam and Max prepared to return to California to drop off their things before heading off on their honeymoon. The catered affair took place in the large dining room of the lake house with everyone – including the babies and the babysitters – in attendance.

It proved a loud, raucous affair with both Troy and Leah wearing red rimmed eyes and pale faces. Leah sipped on some hot tea while Troy attempted to eat an egg sandwich, stopping about two bites in.

"Too much weekend, Troy?" Max asked with a raised eye toward his younger brother.

"A little bit, yeah," he mumbled in return.

"Shhh," admonished Leah. "Too loud." She took a piece of toast and retreated into the front sitting room where it was cool and quiet.

The rest of the family stifled laughter while continuing on with their repast.

"What's on the agenda, Max? Where are you heading after this," Auggie asked once everyone had settled into chewing.

"Well, the Far East – Japan, South Korea, China, and then we'll finish up in Russia."

"Vladivostok is one of my favorite places," piped Sam. "I'm excited to show Max the region."

"It is a really interesting place. It's easy to forget that Russia is also part of the Far East," Annie chimed in.

"Have you spent a lot of time there, Annie?" Sam inquired.

"Vladivostok, no. I've been there only once. But I majored in linguistics with a concentration in Russian at Georgetown. I've spent a good bit of time in the country over the years." She fought to keep the hitch in her throat from making its way to her voice when she spoke about Russia, a completely bittersweet topic for her.

"Oh, well. We should bring you along as a tour guide," Max grinned.

Annie waved him off. "I think you're in excellent hands with Sam here. He has the look of a seasoned pro. And I also know that he's a seasoned pro."

Max and Sam laughed while Auggie forced a little closed-mouthed smile. Annie knew that even talk of returning distressed him, especially after he'd worked tirelessly to get her out of the country after she'd killed Lena and had been arrested and imprisoned in Moscow.

"Well, it sounds like a lovely trip," Annie affirmed before turning to Auggie, her hand on his arm. "I'm going to grab some more eggs Benedict. Do you want anything else from the buffet?"

He held up his coffee cup. "Just about half a cup."

She stood, kissing his temple as she took his mug and moved toward the kitchen. She added some food to her plate before she fixed his coffee. Jim joined her.

"Gwen says you've got a few more days."

She nodded. "A bit of a change of plans at work. I know Auggie wants to talk to you about that a bit later, once everyone's cleared out."

"Ah."

"He'd like to be the one to explain things," she added.

"Gwen insinuated as much." He motioned toward Auggie's cup. "I'll take that to him."

"Thanks."

"Their car is due at 12:30."

Annie nodded again. "He'd probably be up for a walk around the grounds. Maybe down to the dock."

"Yeah," Jim agreed. "Once we get the guys on the road."

Annie patted his arm before she collected her plate and headed back through into the dining room. Although Auggie's parents had known on some level for some time, the confirmation brought with it a new degree of information processing and worry.

Less than an hour later, they all stood on the front steps to see off the newlyweds. As soon as they'd driven from sight, Jim moved to Auggie's side.

"Hey, Aug."

"Dad. You have a minute?"

"Sure. Here? Or do you want to walk?"

"Let's walk."

They did, silently at first. Jim directed them to a bench near the edge of the water, shaded by a grove of trees planted for that particular reason. They sat, and Jim stared out across the ripples of the lake in front of him.

"Through everything, we've never done this, August," Jim started with a sigh.

"I know. Why's that, you think?"

"Your Mom is better at this stuff than me."

"At talking?"

"Well. Yeah."

"Dad."

"I know that's not a valid excuse."

Auggie shifted in his seat. "I'm sorry I haven't had this conversation with you before now. The details haven't been important. Actually, they've been off limits, but this assignment is a big one. We're going be gone for a while, and you'll get a plausible story as to what we're doing, but there's something to be said for the truth. At least every now and then."

"We've assumed the story was something like this, so we didn't push or pry."

"I know, and I thank you for that. And honestly, I'm not sure if knowing is better or worse. You can't ask questions. Well, you can, but we can't usually answer them. That's hard even on the inside sometimes. But the people closest to us know, and you're all close to both of us now. Annie's sister and Brendan and Dana have known for a while, and Max and Sam more recently. It didn't seem right to make all of them keep our secret, too."

"You talked to Mom this morning?"

Auggie nodded. "I did. Have the two of you discussed our conversation?"

"No."

He knew his mother would fill in the details, so he stuck to broad strokes. "We're taking a posting in Istanbul."

"Is that safe?"

"Probably less so than staying in DC. But we'll be as careful as we can be."

"That's not terribly reassuring."

"I know it isn't." He held out his palms in a gesture of submission. "But it's the best I can do."

Jim blew out a long breath. "You know, when they told us you'd been injured I felt so helpless. There was nothing I could do to make that not have happened to you, back then or sense. I sat here and watched you figure things out on your own, and I didn't know what to do to help you. I didn't want to say or do the wrong thing, so I really didn't do anything. I sometimes tell myself it's because I knew you'd find your way on your own, but really, it's because I had never felt so powerless or useless."

Auggie angled himself to face his father. "That's not fair or accurate, Dad. You've always been here – for me, for Mom, for the others. Always. That's what matters, what's always mattered." He shook his head. "I couldn't see how I could give Annie that level of support or presence, knowing there would always be things between us that we couldn't tell the other, or because of the things we've done in our professional lives. Or our personal ones."

"That just means that you've known each other long enough to know the good and bad about each other and be able to get past whatever it is you need to get past," his father reasoned.

"Yeah. You're probably right." Auggie turned back toward the water. "I don't want you to think that I've wasted my life."

"What? Auggie." Jim touched his son's arm. "What are you talking about?"

He leaned forward, head in his hands, fingers clutching at his hair. "I've been struggling with that for a while. What if I'd said no? What if I'd said no – anywhere along the road. Things would be different."

"And so would you."

Auggie sat up straight at his father's response. "Well, yeah. That's the point."

"Annie loves you. She chose you, here and now. Obviously we'd love you in any shape or form, but who you are, who you've become…I'm so proud of you, so proud to call you my son."

He sat silently for a moment before he finally managed to reply. "Thanks Dad. That covers a lot of sins."

Jim placed his hand on his youngest son's arm. "Let yourself breathe. Enjoy this life you're building with your wife. That's what life is, after all – finding the balance between work and what you need to do and what you want to do. It seems like this is a chance for the two of you to do both. I know how important your work is to you and to Annie. And obviously it's important work that you're both totally committed to right now, but will you do it forever?"

"No. We won't. This will be it for the field, if not the Agency, at least for me."

"Then take this post and give it your absolute all, and when the time comes to stop, you'll not have any regrets."

"I already have so many regrets."

"I know you've been working through those. All you can do is keep doing the work. You can't stop when things get good for a while, you know?"

"Yeah." He did know.

"You and Annie seem amazingly well-matched. There are regrets that she carries as well. Her smile doesn't always go completely to her eyes, and she gets the same faraway look that you do from time to time. She understands you better than anyone else could. You've done right by each other, but that's going to take work over time, too. Please promise me that you'll follow up on Dr. Rosen's recommendations."

The younger man nodded. "We are a good match, and I will do my best to do right by her. And by me. You know I don't like the idea of counseling, but I'll do it if Ben thinks it will help me."

Jim nodded, satisfied, and added, "You have to use the tools you have at your disposal."

Auggie smiled. "I hear you saying that in my head all the time. You've gotten my out of a few tight spots with that one. And Annie by proxy."

"I'm glad to hear it. And I'm glad we've had the time to talk."

"We really should try to do it more often. You're not half bad at it."

Jim chuckled. "Maybe I should practice more often."

"If Mom will let you get a word in."

"That is a good point." Jim stood. "You ready to go back up?"

Auggie joined him, taking his Father's arm when offered. "Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

Later that night Auggie's chest pressed against Annie's, holding her close to him. Despite the intimate proximity of their bodies, Annie sensed his mind was miles away. She kissed his shoulder in an attempt to bring him back to her. "The other night when we were on the boat you mentioned a lot of places, was that pretty everywhere they've sent you? I mean, if you can say."

He paused for a moment to compose his answer. "No. I left out Chechnya." He pushed back so that there was a little space between them. "It's not that what we did there is more classified than any of the others, but I try not to think about those missions. That was the worst of anything I had to do for them, even Iraq."

She shifted in the bed so she could see his face more clearly. "It was that bad?"

He nodded. "It was. Arthur pulled me from SAD after what turned out to be my last mission there. He put me on his team and had Helen and me teach his son how to be a spy. And if he hadn't, I'm not completely sure what would have happened to me out there." He paused before continuing. It wasn't like him to discuss the past in detail, especially because of the restrictions of their job, but he figured she could find out the information if she dug deep enough, and he wanted to share this with her.

"That last month had been brutal. We'd already lost Meuller – he just walked off into the wilderness one day – so we were already a man down going into the mission, a prisoner exchange. Things got heated during the hand-off, and then they started shooting. We had a kid with us who couldn't have been more than 25. Dale Frank – he was one of the first hit. Jim Decker had been embedded with the Chechens and had set up the protocol for the exchange with me the day before, but when things went south, it was pretty much every man for himself. Until Decker blew his cover to save my life. After that, he decided he needed to disappear for good; he was done with the Agency and everything that goes with it.

"That left me and Charlie and Tony Salgado. I'm not sure if you know Tony; he works for State now. Anyway, he was already three-fourths of the way to a drunken mess, and he spent the next six years in the bottle after we got back. But Schinderman somehow came through it all pretty much okay. He'd met this girl the year before who was in med school at the time we were in Grozny. She was busy with that and then had a to do a residency, so she needed some time, and he wasn't ready to settle down then, but by the time she finished all of that, he was ready to move on, too. I was his best man in 2010. She's a dermatologist. They have two kids and what sounds like a lovely life."

"He seemed like a good guy. "

Auggie nodded. "He's the best. He definitely helped me keep my shit together for as long as he could, but he knew I was at my breaking point back then. I don't know if he put a bug in Arthur's ear or if it was Joan or what, but he got me through some rough days there.

"Decker made contact a little while later when he was settled in South America. He got messages to me through Teo for a while when Arthur sent him back to Colombia, but that was after Helen, and by that time, keeping in touch with my Agency past wasn't really high on the list. I asked for something completely different, so they gave me that assignment that led to Natasha. Once that broke down, the only place in the world left for me to go, it seemed, was Iraq. And it didn't sound so horrible compared to what had been happening in my life in the two years leading up to the deployment."

"Yeah," Annie agreed. This glance into such particularly trying stretch of time in his past definitely painted his decision to go to Iraq in a different light.

Auggie continued. "Mikhail Khokoran was the guy we had in our custody. He was low-level, and the massacre there had nothing to do with him. I wondered for a while if there'd be retribution for his death. He had a brother in the Georgian Diplomatic Service who died of Lou Gehrig's disease a couple of years ago, but I couldn't find any other ties to anyone who'd need to avenge his death or whatever. So I think we're in the clear from that perspective. So there's one less debt to worry about having to repay someday, I guess," he mused.

They had both shifted during his story so that they were sitting beside one another, leaning back against the bed's headboard. "Do you think past missions could still cause you trouble going forward?" Annie inquired as much for herself as for him.

"Don't you?"

"I try not to think about it too much." They both knew that was a lie.

He answered a bit indirectly. "I hate Russia. I hate you going there – both Russia proper and the former republics. It's a beautiful place with some amazingly resilient people, but it's so dangerous, especially for you, especially now. And the degree of government or law or just who control what varies so widely from region to region. And then on top of it all, Russia moves its borders to encroach upon its neighbors in the middle of the night."

"I know."

"I know it's an important place for you, but I don't see how we can ever go back."

"I know. At least not now." She leaned back against his chest.

His fingers twirled in her hair. "Not ever, really."

"Not unless many things change."

"There are a lot of beautiful places in the world. I'll happily go with you to just about any of them."

"Except the largest."

"Yes."

She rested her head against his shoulder. She was finished talking about this, now. "And Joan didn't know anything about Teo?"

"Not then. I don't know if she and Arthur even knew each other at that time. Arthur had more than he could handle after the Wall fell in Berlin, and Joan had just come up from Africa specifically for Sarajevo. Their paths didn't cross until after we were in The Balkans. Or if they did, I'm not aware of it."

"And things were different before 2001?"

"Very. The world was a different place. Completely."

"It was on the outside, too." They sat in silence a bit longer before Annie spoke one final time. "Have you heard from Ben?"

"Mercer?"

"Yeah."

Auggie shook his head. "I haven't. But Arthur has. And Teo. He's okay. He's Ben."

"Yeah. I remember how it is."

"We should try to get some sleep. We need to make some plans tomorrow."

"You're tired."

"I am. It's been a long day."

She scooted down into the bed. "But everything went okay with your dad, right?"

"I just don't want him to worry about us."

"He's your dad, Baby. Or, our dad, I guess. He's going to worry."

Auggie slid down beside her. "Between Max and me, we've given them enough worry for several lifetimes."

"They worry about the others, too. You know that, right?"

"Even Troy?"

Annie laughed. "Especially Troy."

"Yeah. I think if I were them, I'd have to worry about Troy, too."

He turned toward her, and she placed her hand on his cheek. "Thanks for giving me this family. I didn't ever think I wanted to be a part of one, but I'll miss them all so much – not just Danielle and the girls and Michael."

"I'm glad that I could. Hell, you're the majority of the reason they let me come home, I think." He reached across and kissed her. "They definitely like you, too. It's going to be so weird to be gone. I haven't had to answer to anyone but Joan and Arthur for so long," he added.

"Did Arthur say he had a solution for the house?" The two men had spoken earlier in the evening, and Annie had yet to get a recap of the conversation.

"Oh, yeah. He did. He's been in contact with a former Navy protégé of his who runs a PMC firm who might be interested in either buying it or using it for off-site office space while we're gone."

"Fraternizing with the competition?"

"Not necessarily. Or maybe. He also talked about doing some consulting work for this guy, and if things go well, that could lead to permanent positions for us."

"What? That sounds crazy."

"Sort of, but this guy – Ryan McQuaid – already has his corporation set and vetted. It sounds like he'd be interested in acquiring our, or technically Arthur and Teo's, services under his corporate umbrella. Either as an acquisition or as a partnership. Apparently, there are options."

"Wow."

"Yeah. I know. Arthur wants us to meet with him when we get back in town. He holds a number of government and specifically CIA contracts, so he's read-in on us. It seems like a win-win situation."

"Right. What could possibly go wrong?"

"So we won't invite the guy on vacation with us." He laughed a breath, taking her hand in his. "On second thought, maybe we should. From the sound of it, he's the person to have around when you need an emergent evac."

Annie kissed his fingers between hers. "Absolutely," she agreed with her own laugh. "We'll bring him along if you'd like. But before we start planning our next excursion, let's get some sleep."

TBC


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: I think this will be the end for this one. Ideally, I'd love to write the story of these two in Istanbul, but I don't see that happening in the very near future unless I have a huge burst of inspiration. Either way, thanks for continuing to read this one, even though it's taken a while to get to the end.

* * *

Chapter 22

"I can't believe how tall Katia has gotten," Annie sighed as she stowed their suitcases in the front closet.

"They both seemed so grown up," Auggie agreed as he selected vinyl for the turntable.

"They did, and we were there less than six months ago!" She turned toward him. "We're going to miss a lot, aren't we?"

"We are, but we'd also be missing that if we stayed in DC."

"Except this time we'll be half a world away."

"Or more," Auggie pointed out.

"Not helping," she pouted as she closed up the closet and crossed the room to join him.

"Two years will go by fast." That was the offer the two of them had decided they would give the Agency.

"Yeah."

His phone buzzed, turning his attention away from the jazz just now emanating from the speakers whose installation he had carefully supervised. He tapped the phone's screen before placing it near his ear to hear the text. "It's Teo. Joan wants us to come over for brunch tomorrow."

"What time?" Annie asked as she folded herself into a pretzel-like ball on the couch.

"Noon. We can sleep in."

"Okay."

Auggie sent their affirmative reply before he moved toward the bar. "White or red?"

"Surprise me."

"Tequila it is."

She stretched herself out on the cushions and let him bring the shot to her. He sat beside her as she clinked her salt shot glass against his. "To whatever this is about to be."

"An adventure?"

Annie's brow crinkled. "We don't fare so well on adventures, Babe."

"Should we refer to it as 'an opportunity' then?"

"You prefer that to calling it our last hurrah?"

His free hand found her legs and pulled them onto his lap. "It doesn't have to be that if you don't want it to be."

"But it will be yours." He didn't answer, so she pressed. "Won't it?"

He nodded, slowly at first, then more resolutely. "Yeah. It will."

Annie sighed. "You'll have my back out there in the meantime?"

"Always. Even after I'm gone," he vowed.

"Joan and Arthur have to have secrets now. More secrets than before."

"Hey," he rubbed her calf. "Let's just live these next few years before we worry too much about things we potentially can't tell each other two years or more in the future."

She folded her legs beneath her bum and leaned against his chest. "I don't like not being on your team."

"Understandable, but remember when we didn't make plans for more than two days in advance? In some ways this is better, right?"

"Yeah. Of course. This is definitely better."

He contemplated a second shot of tequila but decided against it. "We should go to bed."

"In our own bed in our own house."

"Kind of crazy."

"Extremely." She placed her hand on his face. "I only ever wanted this with you."

"I didn't know I could even have it until there was you."

She rolled her eyes. "You're trying to get me naked."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is it working?"

"Yes."

* * *

"Should we have brought something?" Auggie asked as they stood on Joan and Aruthr's doorstep early in the next afternoon.

"Yes, but we didn't have anything at the house, and we didn't get up in time to stop on the way here. And I still feel weird asking Tommy to pick up things on his way over to pick us up," Annie rationalized.

"He would, though."

"I know he would. But we didn't ask, so too late now." She reached forward and rang the bell.

Teo answered a few moments later, baby Mac perched securely in his arms. "Hello my friends. Come in."

"This guy is so big," Annie exclaimed as she lightly squeezed the baby's foot.

"He has recently discovered guacamole. No avocado in a 10 mile radius is safe."

"He's got good taste," quipped Auggie as he crossed the threshold. "It's good to see you, Teo."

Teo reached forward to clap his friend's shoulder. "And you, Auggie. Even now it's too long between our meetings, and you haven't even taken your new post yet." Auggie nodded as the color drained a bit from Annie's face. Teo realized this wasn't the correct way to start the afternoon and quickly changed the subject. "Joan's got things set out in the sunroom, if you'll follow me."

They followed Teo through the house to where Joan and Arthur waited on the screened in porch. Joan hugged the approaching couple.

"Welcome Home, you two! How was the wedding?"

Auggie found his chair after shaking Arthur's hand. "It was good. Max and Sam seem very happy." They'd decided upon this as their united front on any questions regarding the family.

"The ceremony and the reception were beautiful." Annie agreed as she placed her hand on Auggie's shoulder. "And we danced all night."

Joan raised her eyebrows and bit her lip, shooting an uncertain look in Auggie's direction.

Annie laughed. "I know. I couldn't believe it myself."

Auggie twisted in his seat to face her, a playful scowl directed toward Annie and then back to Joan. "I can dance."

The women locked eyes and laughed, but Joan coughed, forcing composure. "I know that you can. Quite well as I recall."

"Thanks," Auggie sighed as Arthur encouraged them all to take their seats.

Teo had situated Mac in the pack 'n play beside the table before serving mimosas. He made Auggie's with Patron rather than champagne, though. Auggie sniffed his glass before taking a sip.

"Good call on the tequila," he confirmed with a nod toward his friend.

"I thought you'd enjoy that as a memento from the old days."

"Definitely. Speaking of which, did Joan tell you I ran into Charlie Schinderman?"

"We didn't discuss the specifics, just that you'd accepted the job."

"Well, Charlie was our contact at the facility there. He seems good."

Teo cleared his throat. "I talked to Tony a few weeks ago about clearing up that whole warlord terrorist thing with State. They had some questions. Obviously."

Auggie smiled. "Obviously. How is Tony?"

"Good. Really good, actually."

"I've been meaning to call him." He turned toward Annie. "I need to make a list or something."

Her hand rested on his shoulder, reassuringly. "We'll make sure we catch up with everyone we need to before we go."

"How did your sister take the news?" Joan asked.

"As well as possible, I think." Annie shrugged a little hopeless gesture. "I'm sure she keeps her expectations tempered where it comes to me, or us."

"It's good that she knows what to expect this time." Joan's voice took an encouraging tone.

"We told my family, too," Auggie revealed. "We felt this was a big enough move that they needed to know. All of them." He shook his head. "All those times before, and no one knew. Not except for Brendan and Dana and not until after Iraq."

"This is considerably different," Arthur agreed. "It's a little more difficult to reconcile without it being a military posting."

"Yeah. It was always pretty easy to blame the Army. That and I only saw my parents every few years."

"Did they have any idea?" Teo asked.

"Yeah. Of course. How could they not? Especially with this one being so amazing all the time." He touched Annie's leg beside him. "I think she tipped them off."

"But they weren't surprised," Annie confirmed.

"No," Auggie agreed. "I've always been able to keep a secret."

"They look for that, you know? In recruits." Arthur added, a sly smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"So that's what put me over the top," mused Auggie.

"Must have been," Joan agreed with a grin across the table to Annie. "It's not like you had any other desirable skills."

Auggie nodded before he explained their family time a bit further. "We told them the whole thing rather than just billing it as a State posting. We thought about telling them that and just leaving it, but the truth appealed to both of us."

"And that's your prerogative." Joan confirmed.

"Yeah. It is, but does this get any easier?" he asked, turning from his left to right, as though searching for answers from the others present.

Arthur also surveyed those at the table before he spoke. "The older you get, the smaller your inner circle becomes. You keep the important people close and the others matter less over time. But the people you hold close, you want to give them the world."

Joan stared across at the younger couple. She sighed a little before she spoke. "I've wanted to be able to give you an opportunity like this for a long time, Auggie. And you deserve a posting of this magnitude, Annie. Of course Berlin was the obvious choice, but I pushed for Istanbul. You two are part of our circle, and while this makes it smaller for a bit, we can't wait until you'll come back again to help us complete it again."

Teo winked at Annie and placed his hand on Auggie's arm. "A toast then, to family, the ones we're born into and the ones we choose." He raised a glass and the all clinked together.

Auggie replaced his glass in front of him after taking a sip. "As long as we're speaking freely here, we're going to miss this, or at least, I'm going to. I can't ever remember feeling I was leaving anyone or anything behind when I would go before. This is new, and I'm not sure that I like the way it feels."

They sat silently for a moment before Teo spoke. "I understand that sentiment." He reached toward a squirming Mack.

Annie squeezed Auggie's leg. "Hey. I'm here, and we're in this together."

Auggie placed his hand on hers. "I know. It just feels different."

The others murmured in agreement but let this topic of conversation fizzle as Joan moved to serve their brunch. After eating and another round of drinks for everyone, Annie and Auggie bade the others farewell and slid into the back of Tommy's car.

Annie waited until they'd pulled away before she slid the privacy shield into place and angled her body toward Auggie's.

"This feels different because it is, Love. And I'm not Helen or Billy or any of the others. I'm coming home with you, and when this is done – when you're done – I'll stand beside you and support whatever it is you want to do."

He dropped his head. "How did you know?"

"That every disastrous mission would be crowding its way to the forefront of your mind? Maybe because I know you."

"If I, if this move puts you in unnecessary danger…" He couldn't finish the thought, shaking his head instead.

Annie's hands cradled his face. "Hey. Do you trust me? Do you think I'm good at what I do? If you had to choose someone to send into the field, would you send me?"

Auggie pulled in a deep breath through his nose. He nodded once. "Yes, of course. To all three questions."

Her hands slid behind his neck and her fingers crept into his hair. "Okay. Then trust me to do my job, and I'm going to trust you to do yours. Deal?"

"Deal." He reached forward and dropped the privacy partition. "Let's go home."

FIN


End file.
